Broken
by TillyCreations
Summary: After a depressed Ezra attempts suicide he is admitted to a psych ward. There he meets a strange but interesting girl called Aria. What will happen as their story unfolds?
1. Chapter 1

**In this story Ezra and Aria are the same age (16/17ish) and Ezra was never Aria's teacher and they never knew each other. Other than that the story is set 6 months after 3x13. Sorry for any mistakes and I don't own the show or the characters.**

"So Ezra, do you understand why you're here?" The psychiatrist asked

Did he understand why he was now an inpatient on a psych ward? Ezra had had a lot going on. His parents had disowned him after he left home to make his own way; he was struggling to get a job, his ex girlfriend Jackie had dumped him to be with another guy and not to mention the depression he felt everyday had all led to a sense of hopelessness. Hopelessness so bad it had taken him to a very dark place mentally.

"Because I tried to kill myself" Ezra replied avoiding the psychiatrist's gaze

"Right" The psychiatrist said looking concerned "Do you know why you attempted suicide?"

"Because I didn't feel hope anymore" Ezra said looking up

The psychiatrist nodded and said "Ok, well I'll take you to your room now so you can get settled in and then I'll see you tomorrow to see how you're doing."

"Ok" He said.

Soon Ezra was in his new room for the duration of his stay in the hospital. There were a bed, a wardrobe, a bedside table and an en-suite bathroom.

There was a knock on the door and a man in his early 30s came in.

"Hello Ezra" He smiled, "My names Alex and I am the head nurse here. I have brought you your timetable and wanted to welcome you. I know all of this must seem quite scary now but hopefully we can help you here and I'm sure you'll feel a lot more settled in soon."

"Thank you" Ezra said

"As you can see on the timetable now is dinner time so you can come along with everyone if you want"

"Ok" He answered suddenly feeling quite hungry

Ezra and Alex walked down to the food hall. Alex seemed really nice, he was very cheerful and funny and he made Ezra feel at ease.

They walked into the hall and he could see lots of teenagers eating and chatting. There was one girl who was sitting on her own and Alex led him over to her.

"Ezra this is Aria" Alex said. The girl looked up and smiled at him. "I'm sure she'll look after you won't you Aria"

"Sure" Said Aria "Have a seat"

"Thanks" Ezra said and smiled back at her

"Ok, well I have work to do so I'll leave you two to it" Alex said and walked off

The food was chicken pie and it was actually nicer than the food Ezra had had in the hospital when he was being treated for his injuries.

"So" Aria said "What are you in for?"

Ezra felt uncomfortable and it must if showed because Aria said "Sorry sometimes I'm a bit blunt, you don't have to answer if you want."

"No it's ok" Ezra replied, "Well I tried to kill myself."

"Oh" Aria said "Are you like depressed then?"

"Yeah I guess probably" Ezra said, never thinking of the overwhelming sadness he felt as an actual illness like depression but thinking about it, it made sense. "So why are you here?"

"I'm schizophrenic" Aria answered "And before you judge me I am not going to go all psycho and try and kill you or anything like that it just means I have an illness that likes to mess with me" She said suddenly defensive

"Don't worry I'm not going to judge you, I was just surprised"

"Oh sorry" She smiled "I'm just tired of saying the "s" word and having everyone suddenly wanting nothing to do with me"

"Is that why you were sitting on your own?"

Aria looked uncomfortable and Ezra could see a sadness in her deep hazel eyes.

"Sorry, I guess I can be pretty blunt sometimes too"

Aria laughed and said "We need to stop apologizing to each other. And I was on my own partly because some people judge and partly because sometimes it's better not to let people get to close"

Ezra nodded, after his parents disowning him and Jackie breaking his heart he understood what the female meant.

Ezra and Aria sat and talked through dinner and then there was free time until bed so they sat in the common room and watched tv and chatted.

Lights out was at 10:00 so when it got close to that time they walked to Ezra's room and said goodbye.

That night Ezra lay in his bed, for once not thinking about all the bad stuff he had going on but instead about Aria. She was intriguing, she was obviously smart and kind but there was something about her that was damaged inside.

**Thank you for reading I hope you like it. I've written the next few chapters but suggestions are welcome. Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

Aria lay in her bed staring at the ceiling. She had been in the psych ward for 40 days now, almost two months, but had been struggling with her illness for 6 months now, ever since the Halloween train and being locked in a crate with Garret Reynolds' dead body had triggered her schizophrenia. The event still haunted her whenever she tried to sleep, so much that she had hardly slept for weeks.

Her thoughts turned to the new guy Ezra. He seemed nice; he was the first person she'd gotten to be friendly with for a while. She had pushed her friends away when the illness started to take over her and had been scared to let anyone get too close. She didn't have any friends in the hospital either, she was shy as it was and the schizophrenia had eaten away at her personality until she was almost mute. Talking with Ezra was the first time she had felt alive for a long time.

But she was still worried about letting him get too close to her, the last thing she wanted was for him to see her at her worst, Aria had driven everyone else away. She had no friends left, her Dad thought she was making it all up, Mike was scared of her and even her Mum was wary around her. When she had a meltdown it wasn't pretty and she didn't want anyone who she cared about what they thought of her seeing it.

Aria sighed and turned over to the other side of the bed. She eventually decided to be friendly towards Ezra but not to let him in. The moment he saw how messed up it really was inside her head he was sure to want nothing to do with her.

The next morning after breakfast was group therapy. Ezra hadn't seen Aria at breakfast so he ended up eating his cornflakes on his own and then went down to the room set aside for group therapy. It was the thing Ezra was most dreading about being in hospital, the last thing he wanted was everyone in the ward to know all about him.

He got to the room where all of the chairs were set around in a circle. There were a few couches and the other chairs looked pretty comfy which created a pretty relaxed atmosphere. He took a seat and waited as the room filled up. One of the last people to enter was Aria who took a seat as far away from everyone else as possible.

When the room had about 10 people in the therapist walked in and took a seat.

"Good morning everyone" He said "For those of you who are new my name is Chris and I just want to let you know that this room is a safe place, nothing you say here will leave this room."

Chris smiled "So as there are a couple of new people in this group today we'll start with a couple of games before we get into the other stuff"

As a group they played two truths and a lie and a name learning game where everyone had to say their name and an animal a fruit and a random word beginning with the first letter of their name. Soon Ezra felt like he knew everyone in the group a bit better and so he felt a little more comfortable.

"Ok so now we are going to talk about the best and worst things about being in hospital. So I will go around the group and everyone will say one thing they like about being in hospital and one thing they dislike about being in hospital. Ok I'll start with Alice"

Everyone in the group said their answers except Aria who just shrugged when it got to her. Chris sighed and decided to move on instead of confront Aria, obviously having had that argument with her before.

When it got to Ezra he said "One thing I dislike is group therapy" Which everyone, including Aria, laughed at "And one thing I like is meeting new people" He said looking directly at Aria. Aria looked back at him for a couple of seconds before drawing her eyes away and Ezra could have sworn he'd seen her blush.

After group therapy there were school lessons until the afternoon and then there was free time. Ezra went down to the common room and saw Aria sitting in a corner drawing. He walked over and sat next to her.

"That's really good" He said looking at her drawing of a manga girl.

"Thanks" Aria replied not looking up

"So how's your day been?" Ezra asked

"Fine" She answered still not looking at him

"Good" Ezra said starting to feel uncomfortable at Aria's one worded answers. What had happened to the chatty girl he'd met yesterday?

"I'm sorry, can you go, I don't like people watching me draw" Aria said finally looking at him

"Oh sure, I'm sorry" Ezra said getting up. He walked away and sighed, he'd really gotten to like Aria yesterday and needed a friend to survive this place.

Aria sat and thought about what she'd just done with regret. Pushing Ezra away had hurt more than she thought but she knew it was what she had to do. She couldn't allow herself to get close to anyone.

**Thank you for the reviews last chapter, I hope you all like this chapter! ihavealifeiswear asked if there was going to be any other characters from the show in this story and I wasn't going to put anyone else in but it was quite a good idea so I'm considering it. Leave in your reviews who else you might want to put in the story. The only person I wasn't going to put in was Mona because I thought it was too complicated with them knowing that she is A.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

Aria sat across from her psychiatrist twiddling her thumbs. The awkward silence after the standard questions about meds, how she was doing and about the psychotic symptoms had become a pretty common occurrence.

"So Alex told me that he put you in charge of looking after the new person Ezra, how's that going?" Her psychiatrist Lizzie asked

Aria sighed, there wasn't much she liked about being in hospital but one thing she really hated was all of the doctors always knowing everything that happened. All of the nurses reported to the doctors, psychiatrists and therapists everyday about everything that was going on with each patient. And it was funny that, although the staff thought she was delusional about being watched, between the staff and A, she was being watched all of the time.

"He seems nice, I'm sure he'll be fine here" Aria replied

"Do you think you two might become friends?"

Aria glared at her "I can't have friends"

"Why not?" Lizzie said

"You know why. Everyone around me gets hurt" Aria said sadly thinking of all the people her illness had hurt or driven away. Or if her illness didn't A made sure she had no one. But Lizzie didn't know about that.

"But your starting to get better now right? Maybe it's time to start to let people in again"

Aria considered it for a second but then remembered when she'd tried to let people in a few weeks after she got in the hospital. She had made a couple of friends but then the schizophrenia turned on her and she lost them all. And each time something like that happened it hurt a lot. Enough to make her believe she didn't deserve people who cared about her.

After the session with Lizzie had finally finished Aria walked back to her room and privately burst into tears. All she wanted was to be normal, to have a normal life with a happy family and friends and a boyfriend. But she guessed she didn't deserve that after what she'd put people through because of her illness.

Ezra walked into the canteen and saw Aria sitting on her own as usual. Her eyes looked red and puffy like she'd been crying and she looked even sadder than she normally did. He took a deep breath and went over to sit with her.

"Hey, are you ok?" He asked

"I'm fine" Aria said quietly staring into her food

Ezra realised that she was going to be cold towards him and plucked up the courage to say "Look, when I first met you I thought wow, who is this funny, cool, interesting girl. I really wanted to get to know you. But ever since then you've just been cold towards me and I don't know why. If it's something I've done I'm sorry. It's tough in this place but it's even worse without friends."

Aria looked up at Ezra with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry" She said, "I just can't let you get close to me"

"Why not" Ezra replied

"Because I like you and I don't want you to hate me"

Ezra looked at the sad girl with the broken look in her eyes and all of the negative feelings he felt towards her melted away.

"I could never hate you" He said gently

"You don't know that, you've only seen me at a functional level, I've driven everyone else away and it hurts Ezra"

"I know. I know how it feels to be alone. It sucks. And that's why I know that you could never drive me away"

"Thank you" Said Aria smiling sadly "I needed to hear that"

All of a sudden something came over Aria and she got up and hugged Ezra. It was the first physical contact she'd had with another person for a long time and it felt good.

Aria sat back down and smiled at Ezra. Both of them felt a lot better than they had that morning.

**Thank you for all of your reviews, I really appreciate them! I'm sorry this chapter's quite short but hopefully I'll be able to update soon. **


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm sorry it took me so long to update, I was working on a future chapter which I found quite difficult to write. And I'm sorry this chapter is short again, I honestly am trying hard to make them longer but hopefully I'll update soon.**

**Thank you for all of your reviews and MoustacheRain I don't mind at all, thank you so much for tweeting this story! I really appreciate it.**

* * *

Ezra woke up feeling numb. It was a feeling he'd become pretty used too. He forced himself to get out of bed. He was going through the motions but he felt empty and had gotten to the point where he didn't feel like trying. He braced himself for another tough day in the hospital. Ezra knew that he needed help but hated being in the psych ward all the same. But at least he now had a friend in Aria. She was the only thing that made him feel good at the moment, the only thing that kept him going.

Aria woke up to the voices in her head. She tried to ignore them but it was hard. She felt so frustrated at having to fight everyday but she knew it's what she had to do. They seemed to be getting worse again though. The commanding hallucinations were back and they seemed to be more frequent and more like they were before she got into the hospital. She decided not to tell her psychiatrist yet though. If they got much worse she would but she really wanted to get out of the psych ward and she knew they wouldn't let her out if they knew things were getting worse.

The day was filled with lessons and a session with each of Ezra and Aria's psychiatrists. Later they had animal therapy which was where the local animal shelter brought in some cats and dogs for the patients to pet. It was one of the only things Aria liked about being in the hospital; she didn't have any pets at home but being around the animals made her feel a lot better and more relaxed. When she was really ill being around the animals was one of the only things that brought her back into this world.

Then there was dinner and Ezra and Aria sat together and chatted. The learned that they had a lot in common and they got on really well. Ezra thought that Aria was great though he couldn't help notice that something was a bit off with her that day. She kept getting words muddled up; stiffened any time anyone got near her and seemed to go off into a daydream at times. But he pushed his worries aside and tried to enjoy the time he had with this amazing girl.

Aria knew that she was struggling but tried her best to act as normally as possible and have a good time with Ezra. She was really glad that she finally had a friend and she didn't want to ruin that.

They spent their time after dinner in the common room and joked about awful books they had read and films they had seen.

"So how long have you been here?" Ezra asked

"42 days now, a month and a half"

"Wow that's quite a long time"

"Yeah I know but I'm a lot better now than I was when I first got here" Aria said softly "And I'm sure you won't be here for that long"

"Thanks" Ezra said "And I'm glad you're getting better"

After sitting in silence for a few seconds Ezra summoned up the courage to ask "What's it like? What's it like to have schizophrenia?"

Aria looked at him sadly "It's different for everyone but for me I hear voices in my head. They're quite scary; sometimes they just say mean stuff and sometimes they tell me to do stuff. And apparently I get delusional but I never really know when I am. Sometimes it's like I live in a completely different world to everyone else. It can feel really overwhelming like you just want to scream. It's really horrible" She said tears entering her hazel eyes

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to upset you" Ezra said and put his hand on her arm comfortingly

"It's ok, I'm sorry to cry" Aria said embarrassed "Erm I'd better go, I'll see you tomorrow"

Aria walked quickly back to her room, shut the door behind her and sighed, trying to hold back the tears. She was sure that Ezra thought she was crazy now, anytime she tried to explain her illness to someone before they always thought she was some sort of psycho.


	5. Chapter 5

**Thank you for the review last chapter. Unfortunately it only got 1 review. So if I'm doing something wrong please let me know so I can change it. Thank you. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

Aria was slipping she knew that. She was slipping back into psychosis and there was nothing she could do to stop it. And she was terrified of living in the horrible world that the chemicals in her brain created again. But she was also terrified of telling people the truth about what was going on. She had just started to get to feeling ok and people were only just starting not to be scared of her again. She didn't want to jeopardize that.

She didn't know what to do, she couldn't keep on this way but her thoughts were muddled and confused and the voices were always there contradicting any decision she tried to make. Aria felt very overwhelmed and scared, why couldn't anyone see how much she was struggling?

But Ezra could see, he had noticed the change in her but he didn't know what to do about it, he didn't want to say anything without Aria's permission but he was getting increasingly worried about her.

* * *

It had started off a normal day for both Ezra and Aria. Ezra had school, a meeting with his psychiatrist, art therapy and free time. During free time he went into the common room and saw, to his dismay, Aria sitting on the floor in the corner shaking and crying. Most of the other people in the room were just ignoring it but a few were starting and whispering about Aria. Ezra was shocked that no one was trying to help her or comfort her.

He walked over to Aria and cautiously bent down to her level.

"Aria?" He said quietly

Aria didn't respond to him the tears just continued rolling down her cheeks soundlessly.

"Aria it's me, are you ok?"

"They're inside me, it won't stop" She whimpered

"What won't stop Aria?" He asked softly

She didn't answer she just muttered to herself quietly words that Ezra couldn't make out.

He turned around and looked at the people staring at them "Will someone go and get someone instead of just standing there like idiots" He half yelled then Ezra turned his attention back to Aria whose mutterings had now gotten loud enough for him to hear.

"Save me" She cried "I can't make them stop, pull me out, save me."

Tears started to roll down Ezra's cheeks and he slowly grabbed hold of Aria's hand. "I'm right here Aria, I'm right here" He whispered

Ezra kept hold of her hand and tried to comfort her as he waited for someone to come and help. He looked at the broken girl and all he wanted to do was make it better but he didn't know how which broke his heart. He just held her and waited.

Eventually a couple of doctors came and rushed over to Aria. As they untangled her from him and took her away the words of the song Lost by Aqualung echoed through Ezra's head; _If only love was enough I could reach you, I would reach you._

And in that moment Ezra came to the realization that the way he cared for Aria was more than just in the way a friend would care for something, he felt something more, something stronger; love.

* * *

Aria sat huddled in her room. They had finally left her alone; the doctors had given her some medicine to calm her down then insisted on watching her to make sure she was ok.

She was feeling better than earlier but still pretty unstable. However her thoughts were stable enough to realize that she had completely broken down in front of Ezra. Aria was mortified, she could only imagine how Ezra thought about her now, he probably thought she was some kind of freak.

She closed her eyes and tried to swallow back the tears, she felt like all she was doing was crying recently and it was pointless to just lay there crying. But however hard she tried she couldn't hold back the tears and she eventually gave in and let the salty liquid run down her face. Why did she have to lose everyone and everything? What did she do that was bad enough for her to deserve this?

**This chapter was really hard for me to write and I hope you don't hate me for doing this to Aria. I just wanted to make it accurate of the mental illness Aria has in this story. Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you so much for all of the reviews on the last chapter they made me really happy! I'm really glad you liked the chapter and I hope you like this one. I'm trying to make my chapters a bit longer as I'm writing them so I just wrote chapter 9 which is a bit longer than the last few chapters. **

The next few days were a blur for Aria. Her psychiatrist had switched her meds but they didn't seem to be taking effect yet. She was in an almost permanent state of psychosis and was very paranoid so she only left her room when she had to. To her relief she never saw Ezra.

On Saturday the meds finally started to take effect and she started to get a lot better. The only bad thing about starting to get a bit better was that she was aware of everything and she knew that lots of people, including Ezra, had witnessed her relapse. Now even more people would think she was a freak.

Despite feeling better Aria still hardly left her room. She didn't want to face Ezra, he was someone who she actually cared about and she knew how much it would hurt when he rejected her.

But Aria had other things to worry about. Her parents were visiting today for the first time since she'd relapsed. When they'd visited last week she was very ill and she could hardly remember it. And she always hated the visits; her dad just looked at her as if he didn't know her and her mum would sometimes cry which made her feel awful. But at least she knew she wouldn't see Ezra in the visiting room, he never had visitors.

Aria slowly went down to the visiting room where she saw her parents and brother sitting on a couch. She went over and sat down in a chair opposite them. The awkward silence was broken by her mother, "So dear how are you?"

Aria replied "I'm ok; I'm a lot better than I was last week"

"Oh good, well that's a relief" Ella replied and Aria realised how ill she must of been when her parents saw her last week.

The awkward silence returned and Aria sat twiddling her thumbs wishing for the visit to be over.

"Look Aria" Byron said suddenly "I'm sorry that I didn't believe you before, seeing you last week made me realise that you are really ill. I'm so sorry I just didn't want to believe it after what happened with my brother"

The tears entered Aria's eyes and she said, "That's ok Dad, I'm really glad you believe me now"

And then for the first time in a long time Aria and Byron embraced in a hug and in that moment part of the hole that filled Aria's stomach was gone.

After the visit Aria felt a lot happier. She was glad she'd finally sorted things out with her Dad; at least she had a home to go back to now.

She was stuck in a daydream as she walked back to her room and ended up accidently bumping into someone.

"Oh sorry" She said quietly staring at her feet

"Aria!" A familiar voice exclaimed

Aria looked up in dismay; she knew who that voice belonged to. Ezra stood in front of her looking at her worriedly.

"Where have you been, I haven't seen you since..." He trailed off

"Yeah I've been spending a lot of time in my room" Aria mumbled

"How are you?" Ezra asked caringly

"Better thanks. Much better than when you saw my last" Aria drew her eyes away from him "Look, about what happened, I understand if you don't want to speak to me anymore, it's ok I'm used to it" She said quickly

"Aria, of course I still want to speak to you, you're my friend, I'm sorry if people have let you down before but I'm not like that, I care about you"

"Really?" Aria said looking up

Ezra looked at the small girl with the pain of her past in her eyes and couldn't help hurting for her, for how she had lost so much she automatically expected people to let her down.

"You can trust me, I will never hurt you" Ezra assured her

Aria allowed to let her eyes meet his and could see in his brown eyes that he was telling the truth. He honestly believed that he would never intentionally hurt her. But Aria had been let down so many times and a few words wouldn't be able to change that. She knew that she couldn't truly trust Ezra, she couldn't trust anyone.

As if he could read her mind Ezra said "Why won't you let yourself trust me?"

Aria's eyes filled with tears that threatened to roll down her face "I'm sorry I just can't"

"Aria I love you" Ezra said quickly without thinking about what he was saying.

Aria gazed up at him shocked "What?" She whispered.

"I love you and not letting me in hurts me as much as it hurts you" He said softly

And Aria realised he was being honest, he really did love her. And even though she didn't want to admit it to herself she loved him too. She had never loved anyone before but she loved Ezra.

"I... I think I love you too" Whispered Aria

Ezra grabbed her arm and pulled her into a kiss. She didn't break away or even flinch. It was like Aria was finally accepting that Ezra truly cared about her.


	7. Chapter 7

Ezra and Aria both awoke blissfully happy. For the first night in a long time Aria hadn't had nightmares and Ezra didn't think that everything was so hopeless anymore.

Everything seemed good; Ezra and Aria were pretty inseparable and they spent as much time together as possible enjoying each other's company. Aria had even started to open up to him and they spent hours talking about their illnesses, childhoods and problems. Neither of them felt completely alone anymore.

However things couldn't stay as perfect for long, one morning Aria was in her room when she heard a knock at her door.

"Aria" One of the nurses said popping her head round the door, "You have a visitor here too see you"

Aria looked up in surprise, her family wasn't visiting for a few more days and she couldn't imagine who else it could be.

She walked down to the visiting room and opened the door. As she looked across the room and saw who was there she gasped and her heart stopped. Sitting with their head down in a black hoddie was A. She quickly took a few steps back and stood outside the room her thoughts racing. Aria didn't know what to do; she hadn't heard from A since she'd been in the hospital since they weren't allowed their mobiles and she had never expected this.

But this might be her chance to finally find out who A was; it couldn't be Mona because she was still in Radley. Aria took a deep breath in, tried to summon up some courage, walked into the room and sat down opposite A.

As she sat down A looked up. He/she was sitting there in a mask that changed your voice to sound like Darth Vader. Aria sighed, she knew it was too simple for A to just walk in and reveal themselves.

"What are you doing here?" Aria asked cautiously

"I missed you Aria, you've been in the loony bin such a long time I wanted to see you again"

Although she tried to not let them affect her A's words stung. Aria swallowed and replied "Why do you care all of a sudden?"

"Oh Aria, I've always cared about you and the other 3 bitches"

"Well you have a funny way of showing it" Aria said. As she waited for A's response an idea came into her mind. If she could catch A of guard she was sure that she could tear the mask off, she was close enough too. And then A would finally be revealed and the torture would end. She thought it over a couple of times and decided she would do it. Even if she failed she at least had to try, she may never get an opportunity like this again.

"Hey, are you even listening to me?" A said snapping Aria out of her thoughts, "Oh I see, in crazy land were we" A laughed "You know I always thought you were stronger than this. I thought if any of you were to snap it would be Emily. But I guess I was wrong. Aria was the weak link after all."

As A started ranting about how insane Aria was Aria braced herself getting ready for her chance.

"You know it's ironic, all this time I've been torturing you then you end up torturing yourself. It's quite funny actually, if I'd known this was going to happen then I'd of put less effort into you and had even more energy to mess with the other girls"

Aria inched her hand forward slowly, getting closer to A.

"So what's it like in the nut-house then? Do you sit around all day rocking in a corner? Do they do regular exorcisms? Have you been locked in a padded cell yet? Are strait jackets particularly uncomfortable?"

Aria speedily reached out her hand and pulled the mask off, motivated by her anger. As she removed the mask she looked up in horror as a shocked Toby stared back at her.

"You stupid bitch" Toby whispered and suddenly he was on top of her banging her head against the ground, kicking her in the stomach, hitting her face.

As Aria screamed in pain and yelled "Help!" as Toby wrapped his hands around her neck and pressed down choking her. Blood entered Aria's mouth as she gasped for breath.

Suddenly there were people rushing in and she saw Toby look startled and he murmured to Aria "You're going to regret that. You see, we will make you rue the day you thought you could mess with the A team" then he got up and ran.

The staff were too concerned about Aria to chase after him and Aria passed out as Toby got away.

**As usual I'm sorry this chapter's short, it was a pretty hard one to write. But I updated quickly if that makes up for it. And I'm sorry if I offended anyone, I wanted A to be pretty mean but it was really hard to actually come up with the insults. Thank you so much for all of the reviews on the last chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

_"You're going to regret that. You see, we will make you rue the day you thought you could mess with the A team" _The words echoed through Aria's head as she finally slipped back into consciousness. Her eyes felt too heavy to open and her head was pounding.

She tried to remember what happened but the last thing she could remember was walking into the visiting room and seeing the black hoodie. She tried to identify the voice echoing around her head that belonged to A but her mind was black. She couldn't remember.

Slowly Aria decided she should try to move her aching body so she wriggled her fingers to see if she could.

"Hey, she's moving" She heard a voice say and heard footsteps walk over to near where she was.

"Aria can you hear me?" An unfamiliar voice said and she quietly groaned in response.

"Aria!" Someone exclaimed. She recognised that voice.

Slowly Aria opened her eyes to see Ezra looking down at her. As she looked up at him he smiled and said, "I'm so glad you're awake!"

"Where am I?" Aria asked looking around the unfamiliar room

"You're in the infirmary dear" The unfamiliar voice who now turned out to be a nurse answered.

"What happened?" She whispered

"Someone attacked you Aria" Ezra said his smile fading "Do you know who it was, do you remember what happened"

"No" Aria said "The last thing I remember was going into the visiting room and seeing someone in a mask and hoodie" She decided not to mention that it was A. No one except her and the other three girls knew about this A and she knew only bad things would happen if she told someone after Mona had kidnapped Dr Sullivan.

"Do you know who it could of been?" The nurse asked "Is there anyone who might have wanted to hurt you?"

"I don't know, I don't think so" Aria lied

"Ok, well I'd better go and get the doctor to come and check you over now you're awake and I think you should go now Ezra and let Aria rest" The nurse said

"Ok" Ezra said and bent down and kissed Aria's forehead. "I hope you feel better"

Ezra left and Aria closed her eyes and waited for the doctor to come and examine her.

* * *

A few days later Aria was feeling a lot better and was finally allowed out of the infirmary. However she still had no memory of what happened and the staff couldn't identify her attacker because A had used a fake ID and somehow the security cameras had been tampered with so he didn't come up on video. And since he had the mask and hoddie on as soon as he entered the visiting room Aria didn't know who he was from the bits she could remember.

However the staff had notified Aria that they had increased the amount of security they had so nothing like what happened could ever happen again.

Aria went back to her room in the hospital where she had been instructed to rest in for the next few days. She lay on her bed and though about what had happened. A had been there right in front of her. She had gotten that close to finding out who A was. And she had ruined her chance. Even though she didn't know what had happened or what she had done Aria felt frustrated at herself. And she felt frustrated that she couldn't remember it.

After a while Aria decided she'd had enough of just sitting around and thinking so, against the doctor's advice, she decided to get out and see what was going on and try and find Ezra. It was 4:00 so he would be out of lessons.

Aria walked into the hallway and headed down to the common room. As soon as she entered the room everyone went silent and stared at her. Aria suddenly felt very self conscious of the visible bruising on her face and wondered if it had been such a good idea to leave her room after all.

As she was about to turn and leave she heard a familiar voice calling her. She looked over and saw Ezra looking across the room at her smiling. Aria knew she couldn't leave the room now so she took in a deep breath and crossed the room towards Ezra. As she moved she saw the other patients look away from her and go back to what they were doing. She breathed a sigh of relief. Even though she should be used to it by now, Aria hated being the centre of attention.

"Hey how are you?" Ezra asked concerned when Aria was close enough to talk to him

"I'm a lot better thanks" Aria said sitting down next to him

"Good, I'm glad" Ezra said and hesitated before continuing, "I was really worried about you"

For a moment Aria was unsure how to respond but eventually said "You shouldn't have worried, I'm fine just a bit bruised"

"Ok" Ezra smiled seeming relieved

"So how have you been, what's been going on?"

"Not a lot really just the normal boring stuff around here. Though you gave everyone quite a bit to talk about for a few days. And I've been ok, I was really concerned about you but in general I've been feeling a lot better."

"That's really good, I'm glad" Aria said

"I think when you were attacked it made me realize how lucky I am. Though I've lost a lot I still have my health and I'm safe and not starving or anything. And I have you"

Aria blushed and said "Yeah I guess we are pretty lucky. I think I lose sight of that sometimes. I'm glad that I have my parents back and that I have you too"

Ezra took Aria's hand and said "I'm glad I didn't lose you too."

"So am I" She whispered leaning into his warm body and resting her head on his chest as he stroked her hair.

"I love you" Aria whispered

"I love you too" Ezra replied softly

**Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter, I hope you like this one!**


	9. Chapter 9

_Aria walked into the visiting room. She saw A sitting there. She walked over and sat down. As A talked she reached her hand forward. In slow motion she pulled off the mask. It revealed a monster. Literally. Across her sat a creature with a deformed, grotesque face, demon eyes and snakes for hair. Aria screamed as the creature jumped on her beating her against the floor._

The knock at the door awoke Aria. She looked at the time, it was 5pm, she must have fallen asleep after classes.

The door opened and a staff member entered.

"Aria, you have a visitor"

Aria was hit by the sense of déjà vu. This seemed very familiar to when A visited her. And she knew it couldn't be her family because they had visited yesterday.

"Um, would you mind telling me who it is" Aria said cautiously nervous after what A had done to her

"It's three teenage girls who look about your age. Don't worry, they've been through security, it's perfectly safe" The staff member said sympathetically

"Ok" Aria said and left her room to walk down to the visiting room

She had guessed by now who it was but she still couldn't stop herself from shaking especially with the nightmare still fresh in her mind.

Aria took a deep breath and entered the visiting room. Sitting on a couch in the corner was Spencer, Hanna and Emily.

She walked over and Spencer and Emily smiled at her but Hanna jumped up and run over and embraced her.

"Oh my gosh Aria, are you ok" She said

"I'm fine, the bruises look worse than they are" Aria said bashfully

Hanna sat back down and Aria sat opposite from the other three.

"We're so sorry Aria" Emily said

"What for, A did this to me not you guys" Aria replied

"I know but for not being there for you. We're all so sorry"

"Oh, that's ok, I don't blame you guys for that"

"But it was wrong of us, you needed us and we weren't here for you." Emily said getting upset

"Aria we didn't visit you because we didn't want too, we wanted to be there for you more than anything but A threatened us that we couldn't" Spencer continued

"What" Aria exclaimed shocked "I thought you guys were just scared of me"

"We could never be scared of you Aria, you're our friend and we love you. We were just too scared of A to come. But when we heard you were hurt we knew we had to come"

Aria's eyes filled with tears as she realised that her friends really did still care about her and Emily, Spencer and Hanna hugged her.

"But guys, aren't you scared of A doing whatever they threatened you with?"

"We don't care anymore, you're more important to us than that" Hanna said

"What did A threaten you with?" Aria said

"Well A still has the photo of us by Ali's grave and they threatened to release it to the cops" Emily answered

"But if A does release it to the police we'll all be in huge trouble"

"Exactly, that's why we couldn't come, but we're tired of being pushed around by A" Spencer said "If they want to give it to the police then so be it, we'll just have to deal with it as it happens"

"Thank you for coming to see me then. It means a lot to me that you'd put your freedom in jeopardy for me" Aria smiled

"That's ok, we know you'd do the same for us" Emily replied

"So what exactly happened with A?" Hanna asked

"I'm not sure, I can't remember it but I've been having dreams about it so I think we were talking and then I went to take off the mask A was wearing, and I must have seen who A is and then whoever it was attacked me. I'm just so frustrated that I can't remember who it was, maybe then all this would be over" Aria sighed

"It's not your fault Aria, you were so brave and you tried, it's not your fault that A attacked you" Spencer said reassuringly

"I know it's just annoying that I got so close"

"Yeah we understand" Hanna said

For the rest of the visiting time the four girls reconnected. They had all missed each other loads and it was great for them to be back together, even if A's threats lingered at the back of their minds. When the visiting time was over the girls promised to be back soon and they all hugged again. Then Aria went to the common room to find Ezra.

Ezra was really happy to hear that Aria had her friends back and they spent the rest of the evening together talking and watching the tv. Eventually Aria drifted off in Ezra's arms...

_She was back in the visiting room with Emily, Spencer and Hanna. They were talking and laughing together. Suddenly the three girls stopped talking and their faces went blank. "Hey guys" Aria said but they didn't respond. All of a sudden they started cackling and their faces morphed into faces of monsters. Aria screamed as they reached out towards her and pressed their hands around her neck. As she looked up she saw the monsters had turned into A. The black hoodie was there but where A's facial features should of been was a faceless head. Aria chocked out a scream again as the strangulation took hold..._

"Aria, Aria" She heard pulling her out of her nightmare

Aria gasped awake and looked up to seeing Ezra looking over her.

"Shh it's ok, it was just a nightmare" Ezra said soothingly

"He was there, he was strangling me" Aria cried

"It's ok, it's ok" Ezra said and pulled her into a hug. Aria held onto him, his arms were strong and comforting around her. Aria breathed out, closed her eyes and allowed herself to feel safe in Ezra's arms.

**Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter! I hope you like this chapter. **


	10. Chapter 10

**Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter,** **I hope you like this one!**

Ezra held Aria in his arms as she slept fitfully. It was the middle of the day but she'd obviously had no sleep that night so she fell asleep in Ezra's arms, the place where she felt truly safe.

Ezra was worried about her, although she was doing well fighting her mental illness the attack had really affected her. The little confidence she had left was gone and Aria had nightmares almost every time she slept. She was also getting very nervous in situations that she wasn't used too and she was only comfortable around Ezra.

However Ezra was doing quite well. The anti-depressants they'd put him on were working and with that and having Aria around he was feeling a lot less depressed and was no longer suicidal.

Ezra was snapped out of his thoughts as Aria woke up suddenly.

"Another nightmare?" He asked softly

Aria nodded meekly and Ezra wrapped his arms around her. They held onto each other in their own private world until they were interrupted by a member of staff.

"It's visiting time guys" She said

Aria got up to go and see her friends knowing they were coming that day and Ezra stayed where he was, knowing he wouldn't have anyone to see him.

"Hey Ezra are you coming?" The staff member said

"What do I have a visitor?" Ezra asked confused

"Yes, there's someone in there to see you"

Ezra got up and went over to where Aria was waiting for him.

"I wonder who's here to see me" Ezra said

"Maybe it's your family trying to make amends like my dad did" Aria replied

"Maybe" He said doubtfully

They entered the visiting room and Ezra looked over to find someone he would recognize. Then his eyes fell upon his visitor. For a moment he stood shocked until Aria said "What's wrong Ezra, who is it?"

"It's my ex girlfriend Jackie" He said quietly "She broke up with me before I came here"

"Oh" Aria said "What do you think she's doing here?"

"There's only one way to find out" Ezra answered and went over to sit opposite Jackie as Aria went and sat with her friends.

"What are you doing here" He said sitting down

"I thought you'd be glad to see me" Said Jackie with a tinge of disappointment in her voice

"Why would I be glad to see you after you broke my heart" Ezra said bitterly

"I know, I regret that now" Jackie replied

"Really? Because I don't even care anymore, I've moved on"

"Oh come on Ezra" Jackie said "We were good together"

"That doesn't matter anymore, I have someone else now" Ezra said his eyes flickering to Aria where she was looking at him curiously

"I can't believe you found someone in this nuthouse" Jackie laughed "I bet she's a right psycho" Jackie's eyes found Aria looking at them and Aria quickly looked away "I bet that's her, so what type of crazy is she here for?"

"Don't talk about her like that" Ezra said defensively "If anyone's the psycho it's you. I can't believe you came here"

"Ezra" Jackie exclaimed shocked

"No, you dumped me Jackie because my family disowned me and you realised there would be no inheritance for you to latch onto" He said letting the truth he was to afraid to even think spill out "You never loved me Jackie, I loved you but not anymore. Now I don't want anything to do with you"

Jackie looked at Ezra surprised that he'd finally guessed her true intentions of being with him. Her expression revealed the truth Ezra had guessed.

"Just leave" He said coldly and Jackie got up and walked away.

Ezra smiled to himself at his little victory. What Jackie had done to him had hurt but that confrontation had healed part of his pain. And now he would never have to deal with her again. Plus he had Aria who he know truly loved him for who we was. And he loved her.

His thoughts reminding him of her Ezra looked over to see Aria. However he was surprised at what he saw. Aria was looking at her friends looking very pale and shocked and Ezra realised something was really wrong.

Ezra quickly went over and whispered to her "Are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine" She lied unconvincingly "I'll meet you in the common room later yeah?"

"Ok" Ezra replied uncertainly. He knew something was wrong but he didn't want to push her.

When the visiting time was finally over Aria went straight back to her room and closed the door behind her. She felt physically sick. When her friends had visited her Spencer had shown her a picture of her and Toby together, Toby wearing dark clothing. That and being in the visiting room had triggered Aria's memories.

Suddenly she had remembered everything. Sitting in the visiting room opposite A. Realising she had the chance to find out who A was once and for all. Summoning up the courage to grab A's mask off. Reaching forward. And pulling off the mask revealing A's true identity. Toby. Then she remembered Toby attacking her, banging her head against the ground, kicking her in the stomach, hitting her face, holding his hands around her neck until she couldn't breathe.

The tears prickled in Aria's eyes as the realisation of what happened hit her. Then she realised she'd have to tell the other girls. How could she tell them that Spencer's boyfriend, one of Emily's closest friends had been the one torturing them for years now. And what was she going to tell Ezra? He had seen that she was upset but she couldn't explain to him why without explaining about A. She didn't want to keep it from him but she couldn't put him in danger.

Aria sighed to herself. She had no idea what to do.


	11. Chapter 11

A few days had passed and Ezra was sure that since he'd seen Aria get upset when her friends had visited her that she was keeping something from him. He didn't know how to go about it, he didn't want to push her if there was something she didn't want to tell him but he wanted her to know that she could trust him.

He eventually decided to confront her about it. So Ezra went down to Aria's room and knocked on her door.

"Hey" She smiled as she opened the door

"Hi, can we talk?" Ezra said

"Sure" Aria said and let him in

"Look Aria, I know you've been hiding something from me since your friends visited you but I want you to know that you can trust me. You can tell me anything and I'd never judge you."

"I really want to tell you, I do, but I just can't" Aria said sadly

"Why, I promise I won't tell anyone else if you don't want me too"

Aria thought for a second. If Ezra wasn't going to tell anyone A would have no way of finding out that he knew which meant that Ezra would stay safe and that she could be honest with him.

"Ok, but you have to promise not to tell anyone" Aria said cautiously

"I promise" Ezra reassured her

And for the next hour Aria told him all about Ali's murder, A and finally the attack and remembering that Toby was A. It was painful for her to say but a relief to finally be able to talk to someone beside her friends about it. When she had finished Ezra looked at her with tears in his eyes.

"Aria, we have to tell the police about this" He said

"But we can't, A knows stuff about my friends and I, things that could get us into a lot of trouble."

"But we can't just let Toby get away with this, he's been torturing you guys for years and he attacked you" Ezra said worriedly

"I know, I want him to pay too I just don't know what we can do" Aria said "And I still need to tell my friends first, I just don't know how I'm going to do that to them"

"Whatever happens I'll be here for you Aria. But I really think you need to tell someone, Toby is dangerous, he's already hurt you and possibly even killed your friend, who knows what else he could do"

"You don't get it Ezra, my friends and I are already persons of interest in Ali's murder and A had a picture of us standing over her dug up grave. If that got up the police would try to prosecute us in a second"

"But you're innocent"

"Yes but the police don't think that" Aria explained "And A twists things to make us look guilty. We already did community service for being found with Ali's murder weapon after being set up by A"

"Ok, I won't tell anyone I promise" Ezra replied "I'm sorry this happened to you"

"Thank you" Aria said and embraced him. Now all she had to do was tell her friends.

* * *

The next day Spencer, Emily and Hanna were visiting and Aria decided that she had to tell them about Toby. She was really nervous to how they would react.

At visiting time she walked down to the visiting room and smiled nervously when she saw her friends.

She let the girls talk about what was going on with them first and waited as they filled her in on all of the gossip in Rosewood.

"So Aria, what's been going on with you, how are you?" Hanna asked

"Well I remembered who attacked me" Aria said looking down at her feet

"Oh my gosh Aria, you know who A is?" Hanna exclaimed

"Yeah" She looked up at Spencer and Emily who were looking at her encouragingly, knowing what she was about to say would hurt them so much, "It's... A is... the A who attacked me was Toby" She said sadly

For a second the girls just stared at Aria looking shocked. Then Spencer said, "No, you got it wrong, you probably just remembered wrong, it can't be Toby"

"I'm sorry Spence, I remember exactly what happened, it was defiantly Toby"

"I don't believe you; we all know you don't exactly have a very good grasp on reality"

"Spencer!" Emily exclaimed with tears in her eyes

"Well she's wrong, A is not Toby! Don't you think I'd know" Spencer yelled

Hanna and Emily sat in silence as the tears streamed down Aria's face.

"Are you sure Aria" Emily said "You're positive that you remember it right?"

"Yes! I wouldn't have told you guys if I wasn't certain it was Toby. I wouldn't want to hurt you like that"

"Then I believe you" Emily said slowly the tears falling down her face

"So do I" Said Hanna quietly

"Do you guys even know what schizophrenia is in a nutshell? It's where you can't tell your own intense thoughts, ideas, perceptions and imaginings from reality." Spencer cried "I'm sorry Aria but I just can't believe you" And Spencer got up and walked out of the hospital.

Aria chocked back her tears, she hadn't expected Spencer to react well but she hadn't expected her not to even believe her. Spencer was one of her best friends and it hurt.

"Don't worry Aria, we believe you and Spencer will come around" Hanna said wrapping her arms around Aria

When Emily and Hanna had gone Aria went to find Ezra. He was sitting the common room and Aria walked over to him.

"Hey, how did it go?" Ezra asked

Aria looked at him and burst into tears.

"Hey" Ezra said and pulled her into his arms

"Spencer doesn't believe me and now she probably hates me" She cried and Ezra's arms tightened against her petite body

"Shh it's ok, it's going to be ok" He whispered soothingly

"I'm glad you're here" Aria said and she heard Ezra sigh. She sat up and said "What"

"I'm so sorry Aria, while you were gone I had a session with my psychiatrist and they're discharging me tomorrow"

"What!" Aria exclaimed shocked. She knew that Ezra would leave at sometime but she hadn't expected it to be so soon.

"I'm sorry to leave you here like this" He said sadly "But I'll come and visit you every day"

"No, I'm sorry, I should be happy for you, congratulations, I'm really glad for you" Aria said and sunk back into Ezra's arms and Ezra held onto her regretfully.

* * *

**Thank you for the review on the last chapter, I hope you like this chapter, it was quite a hard one to write! Please review!**


	12. Chapter 12

Spencer walked down the road on the way to her house. She felt mean for what she'd said to Aria but she was upset and hurt. Aria was one of her best friends; she couldn't believe she'd think something like that. It wasn't her fault of course but the allegation had hurt Spencer.

She continued walking when a thought started running through her head. It seemed unlikely but what if Aria was right. Toby was her boyfriend and she loved him but Aria was her best friend and she trusted her with anything she told her. Spencer turned around and started to walk to Toby's flat. He'd given her a key and she knew he'd be at work so she'd have a chance to wipe all of the doubts from her head.

Spencer opened the door to Toby's flat and went inside. She quickly looked around the place, glad that she couldn't find anything when she saw it. A pass to Radley with Toby's picture on it but someone else's name on it. And that's when she knew. She knew that Aria was right; Toby was A. Spencer sunk down onto the floor and cried hysterically as she waited for Toby.

Aria lay on her bed staring at the ceiling. Ezra had gone that morning and now she was alone. She was happy that Ezra was better and could go home but the selfish part of her wished that he was here with her. She needed him, he was her strength and she needed all of the strength she could get after what had happened with Spencer.

Ezra opened the door of his new flat that he'd organised for himself while he was in the hospital. He had enough savings to pay the rent for a few months and he'd get a job while he wasn't in school for the future months. But he was graduating soon anyway, so then he would be able to get a full time job. He'd have to wave goodbye too all of his dreams of going to college, there was no way he could pay for it on his own, but he could write in his spare time and hopefully even get a book published in the future.

He looked around the flat, it was small but cosy and he was happy with it. Plus the rent wasn't too high and when Aria got out of the hospital it would be the perfect place for them to spend time together.

Ezra began to unpack his stuff into the compact apartment and his thoughts turned to the next day. He would be starting school at Rosewood high and it was the first time he would have gone to school since being in the hospital which was a scary thought. But he was up for it, he'd kept up with his studies in the psych ward and he was looking forward to being in a slightly more normal environment.

When he'd finished packing he sat down on the couch and imagined that Aria was sitting there with him. He hoped that she was ok, him being discharged was a big shock for both of them and he knew how upset she was about Spencer.

Meanwhile Spencer was sitting on Toby's couch waiting to confront him. When she finally heard his key turn in the lock she stood up.

"Hey Spencer" Toby said as he walked in. He looked up at her and saw her red puffy eyes and said "Is everything ok"

"Aria remembered" She said quietly

Toby tried to hide the shock on his face and replied "What did Aria remember"

"Don't pretend you don't know, she remembered A attacking her, she remembered you attacking her"

"What!" Toby exclaimed "I didn't touch Aria, I'm not A. Come on Spence are you really going to believe what she says, she's schizophrenic for goodness sake"

"Then how do you explain this" Spencer said calmly holding up the card for Radley

Toby looked shocked and hesitated, unable to think up a lie quick enough.

"Please just tell me there's an explanation" Spencer said the tears forming in her eyes

"Spencer" Toby said slowly and then looked down at his feet

Spencer burst into tears and ran out of the apartment onto the street and kept running until she felt a pain in her side. The she collapsed on the street and let herself let all of the tears out.

**Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter, I hope you like this chapter! I'm sorry there's not much Aria in this chapter but I wanted to sort things out with Spencer so I hope you don't mind a bit of Spencer's pov. **


	13. Chapter 13

**Sorry that it's been a while since I updated, I hope you like this chapter! Thank you for all of your reviews on the last chapter!**

* * *

Spencer sat in the visiting room waiting for Aria. She twiddled her fingers as she waited nervously. She really hoped Aria would forgive her.

Aria entered the visiting room and sat down opposite Spencer.

"Hi" She said meekly

"Oh Aria I'm so sorry" Spencer said "You were right, I'm sorry about what I said"

"It's ok, I don't blame you" Aria replied "What changed your mind?"

"I found a pass to Radley with Toby's photo on it and I confronted him and he couldn't deny it"

"I'm so sorry Spence, you must be so hurt" Aria said sadly

"I just can't believe it, I hate him but I am still in love with him and it just hurts so much" Cried Spencer

Aria got up and hugged Spencer and the taller girl held onto her tightly.

When Spencer had gone Aria went back to her room. She felt so bad for Spencer, they had been dating for a long time and Aria imagined how devastated she'd be if she'd found out Ezra was A. But she was glad that she'd made things up with Spencer.

Back in her room Aria felt very lonely without Ezra. She was looking forward to seeing him that evening, even though he'd only been gone a day she missed him, she was used to having him around all of the time. The thoughts of Ezra reinstated her thoughts of how bad Spencer must feel, Aria wished she was out of the hospital so she could be there for her friend. With Ezra gone and Spencer so hurt the hospital was starting to feel more like a prison and Aria all of a sudden felt very trapped. Before she realised what was happening Aria felt claustrophobic and started breathing heavily. The tears came streaming down her face and she started to hyperventilate. When she came close to fainting Aria decided she had so press the panic button so she did and waited for the doctor's to come.

* * *

Ezra's first day back at school had gone pretty well. He'd met some nice people and he liked all of his teachers and even managed to enjoy his classes. It was a fresh start for him, no one knew Ezra or about his time in the hospital so he knew nobody would judge him. He felt bad for Aria, everyone in Rosewood knew she was in the hospital so when she came back to school everyone would be staring and whispering about her.

After school Ezra went straight to the hospital so see Aria for the evening visiting time. He sat and waited excited to tell her about his day when a staff member came up to him.

"Hi, you're here to see Aria Montgomery right?" She said

"Yes" He answered

"I'm sorry but you can't see her today"

"What! Why?" Ezra asked

"I'm sorry, I don't know, I can get you her psychiatrist to talk to you if you want?"

"Yes please" Ezra said worriedly. He wondered what had happened, he'd only been gone one day and he couldn't help feeling a sense of guilt that he wasn't there for her.

Soon Aria's psychiatrist arrived to see Ezra.

"Hi again Ezra" She said remembering him "You were here to see Aria right?"

"Yes, what happened, is she ok?"

"Well I can't give you the details because of patient confidentiality but she had a panic attack. But she'd fine she's asleep now and she's safe." The psychiatrist explained

Ezra's heart hurt for Aria, he knew how hard she tried and he wished he could of been there for her, maybe he would of been able to calm her down.

"Ok, thank you" He said and got up and left the hospital and walked back to his apartment. He got in and tried to distract himself but whatever he did his thoughts turned back to Aria, all alone and struggling. He pressed his head into his hands and sighed, he wished he could help Aria, that he could reach her somehow. But he knew that when her mental health problems took over that there was nothing he could do to help her.


	14. Chapter 14

**What's this, I updated 2 days in a row? Haha. Anyway thank you for the review on the last chapter, I hope you like this chapter! And I know my chapters are short but I'm trying to make them longer, I just wrote chapter 19 and it's super long for me so you guys have that to look forward too hehe.**

* * *

The next morning Aria was feeling a lot better though she was still miserable about being in the hospital. But she didn't feel so trapped anymore.

It was the weekend which she was glad of because that meant no lessons and there was an extra visiting time in the morning so she would be able to see Ezra soon. As she sat through counseling and art therapy she willed the time to go faster so that she could see Ezra. Even though he'd only been gone a couple of days she was used to seeing him every day for most of the day and she missed that.

She sat in art therapy thinking of him, of his deep blue eyes, his cute curly hair, his warm loving kiss. Her thoughts took control of her hands gripping her pencil and she started to draw Ezra's face. She snapped out of her daydream and looked down properly at her picture. Aria laughed when she saw how awful her drawing was. She'd never been a great drawer but she'd always enjoyed it which is why she liked photography so much. You could be just as artistic without having to rely on your pencil doing the right thing.

When the morning's activities were finally over Aria walked down to the visiting room. She had decided to take her picture of Ezra to show him, she thought he'd probably find it quite amusing. And she felt guilty for not being able to see him yesterday because of her panic attack, she knew he'd just started back at school and she wanted to be there for him for his transition out of the hospital.

She walked in and saw Ezra looking for her. Aria smiled and walked over to see him. As Ezra spotted her smiling at him his concerned facial expression turned into a smile. He stood up and hugged Aria which then transitioned into a gentle, loving kiss. As they felt each other's heat the kiss deepened but then they snapped out of their world into the realisation that the room was full of other patients and their visitors who were probably looking at them.

Ezra blushed embarrassedly and Aria smiled at him. They took their seats and Ezra reached over and entwined his hand with hers.

"Hey how are you?" He said his face morphing back to the concerned expression

"I'm ok, I'm sorry about yesterday, I'm fine now" She said sensing his concern

"I'm glad you're feeling better, I was really worried about you, and I wished that I could be here for you"

"That's ok; I wished that I could be out of out of here so that I could be there for you. I just felt trapped that I was stuck here unable to support Spencer and be with you"

"That doesn't matter Aria, I know you want to be there for me but you need to get better first"

"I know, and I really am feeling a lot better than when I first got admitted to the hospital, my psychiatrist just wants to make sure that I'm stable enough before I leave"

"I understand, they just want you to be safe Aria" Ezra said to her

Aria looked at him and nodded, she knew that she needed to still be in the hospital; it just sucked.

"Anyway how are you, what's your new flat like and how's school?"

"The new flat's great, I can't wait until you can see it, it's small but cosy. And school's been going ok; my teachers and classmates seem quite nice"

"That's really great Ezra" Aria replied feeling happy for him

Ezra and Aria talked for the rest of the visiting time and just as Ezra was about to leave Spencer rushed in.

"Spencer, is everything ok?" Aria exclaimed surprised

"No, I need to talk to you" Spencer said urgently

"Ok, but there's only five minutes of visiting time left" Aria said unhappily

"Um, should I leave you two too it" Said Ezra awkwardly

"Yes please, sorry Ezra" Aria answered

Ezra nodded and gave Aria a quick kiss on the cheek "Nice to meet you Spencer" He said

"You too, sorry Ezra" Spencer replied

Ezra left and Spencer sat down next to Aria.

"What's wrong Spence?" Aria asked worriedly

"It's Toby, he's gone missing. I went to his place to talk to him and he wasn't there. I asked around but no one's seen him anywhere. I know what he did to us is horrible but I can't help worrying about him"

"Ok, slow down" Aria said "When was the last time you saw him?"

"Last week when I confronted him about being A"

"And is there anywhere he could have gone? Could he of moved or gone to stay with a relative?"

"No" Spencer cried "He didn't have enough money to move and he doesn't get on with his family"

"Ok guys, visiting time's over" A staff member called

Spencer looked at Aria worriedly and Aria said "Look it's ok. I have to go now but we'll figure this out ok. I'm sure he's ok, he probably just wanted to get away"

"Ok" Spencer said unsurely "Thank you"

"I'm sorry that I'm in here and not there for you" Aria said sadly

Spencer pulled Aria into a hug and they held onto each other tightly.

"I'll see you soon yeah?" Aria said

"Yeah, bye Aria" Spencer said and slowly walked away.


	15. Chapter 15

Ezra slowly awoke in his apartment the next day. It was Sunday and he could stay in his bed all morning. He smiled at the thought and grabbed the book next to his bedside. He was reading To Kill a Mockingbird for the 100th time.

He got up to make a coffee and settled down with his drink and his book. A few minutes later he was interrupted from his reading by a knock at the door. He looked at his clock; it was 11am. Ezra wondered who it could be; he wasn't the most popular person at the moment. Realizing he was just in his underwear he threw on a dressing gown and went to open the door.

Standing outside was Aria looking nervous. For a second Ezra stood there shocked; Aria was the last person he'd expected to see.

"Aria" Exclaimed Ezra "What are you doing here"

"They let me out of the hospital, the think I'm stable enough to go home" Aria said

"That's great" Ezra smiled and threw his arms around her. As he hugged her he realised that Aria was shaking. "Hey are you ok?" He asked

"Did you feel so scared when you got out?" She said quietly "I'm terrified of being back out in the world, I have to go back to school and be around people, what if I'm not ready for this?"

"They wouldn't of let you out if you weren't ready Aria" Ezra said comfortingly "I was scared too when I left the hospital and you had been there for a long time, it's bound to feel strange"

"You're right" Aria said "Sorry for turning up uninvited like this"

"That's ok, come in" Ezra said and then realised he was still in his underwear, "Um, I'm just going to get dressed" He grabbed a shirt and jeans and Aria laughed as he rushed into the bathroom.

Aria looked around his apartment; it was nice she liked how comfortable it was. She looked over to his bookcase; he had hundreds of books, even more than her. He had good taste too; she saw several books that she owned.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Ezra was still getting changed so she went over and opened the door. She gasped when she saw who was there. Toby. Toby with a gun.

"Toby" She said looking at the gun

"Get out and close the door quietly. You yell to your boyfriend in there and I shoot you. Or even better maybe I'll shoot him and force you to watch as the life drains out of him"

"Ok" Aria said quietly and stepped out of the apartment closing the door behind her

"Follow me" Toby said and Aria obeyed. Toby took her to his car and forced her in. He got in the driver's side and started the car

"Where are we going?" Asked Aria

Toby ignored her and continued driving.

"Why are you doing this? How could you do what you did to my friends and I, do you know how much Spencer cares about you?"

"You bitches got no more than what you deserve" Toby replied

"Please, just let me out of here" Aria said the tears falling from her eyes

"I can't do that" He said coldly

Eventually Toby and Aria got to a deserted cabin in the middle of the woods.

"Right, go inside" Toby said

Aria walked inside the cabin with Toby following who shut the door behind them. The cabin had two stories and had a big main room and a kitchen and smaller room downstairs. It was mostly unfurnished apart from a couch and tv downstairs and Aria could see that there was at least one bed upstairs. Across from the couch was a fireplace with a fire already burning in it. The curtains were all drawn which created the effect of moving shadows on the wall.

She turned back to Toby, "What are you going to do with me?"

He gave her a cold, scheming smile, "I don't know yet, that's for her to decide"

"Who?" Aria asked

"If I told you I might as well just shoot you now" Toby replied and Aria felt a shiver rush through her body.

Ezra stepped out of the bathroom and realized Aria was no longer there. He looked around as if she could be hiding in his tiny apartment somewhere and wondered where she had gone.

He got out his phone and texted her "Where have you gone?" but then he heard her phone buzz in his apartment. Ezra found the phone and picked it up. That was strange. He couldn't think of a reason why she would leave her phone there. He thought that she must have forgotten it when she left. He decided to go to her house and return it to her and then maybe he'd find out why she left so suddenly without saying goodbye.

Ezra walked to Aria's house and knocked on the door. Ella Montgomery answered it

"Hello Ezra" She smiled

"Hello Mrs Montgomery, is Aria in?"

"Call me Ella, and no she said she was going to see you"

"She did come and see me but she left while I was in the bathroom and left her phone at my place" He replied

"Oh, well maybe she'd gone to see her friends"

"Maybe" Ezra said wondering why if she was going to see her friends she hadn't said goodbye.

"Anyway you can leave her phone here with me if you want"

"Ok" He said and handed it over "Um, would you mind getting Aria to call me when she gets back please?"

"Sure, thanks for bringing her phone back" Ella answered

"That's ok, I'll see you around" Ezra said and turned around to leave

"Bye Ezra" Ella said and shut the door

Ezra walked back to his apartment, turned the tv on and waited for the call from Aria letting him know that she was safe and why she had left in such a hurry.

* * *

**Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter I hope you like this chapter! Just a warning the next few chapters are going to be a bit darker and chapter 21 is going to be rated M. I can't say why now because it will spoil it but I will put a warning on that chapter. But hopefully you guys are going to be ok reading the rest of it. And after chapter 21-22/23ish there's going to be quite a bit of Ezria fluff.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Thank you so much for the reviews on the last chapter, I hope you like this one!**

* * *

Ezra was snapped awake by his phone ringing. He looked down at it, it was midnight, he must have fallen asleep that afternoon. He looked at the caller ID, it was Aria. She must of just got home.

He answered it "Hi Aria"

"Ezra? It's Ella"

"Oh, hi Ella, where's Aria?" He asked

"That's what I was hoping you could tell me, she still hasn't come home"

"What?" Ezra replied shocked

"You haven't seen her or heard from her have you? I'm really worried, she hasn't got her phone, none of her friends have seen her, it's late and she only got out of the hospital today"

"No, I haven't seen her since earlier. You don't think anything's happened to her do you?"

"I don't know, we're actually going to call the police now"

"Ok, well please can you keep me updated?" He asked

"Yes, of course, thank you Ezra"

"Bye Ella, I hope you find her soon" Ezra said and hung up. He couldn't believe that Aria had gone missing. He didn't know what could have happened; one moment she was there and then she was gone. And he was probably the last person to see her. He was sure that she couldn't have run away but he didn't know what else to think. But then the thought came into his head what about A? A was always watching, he would of known where she was, he could have easily kidnapped her. Ezra suddenly felt really scared for Aria, if A really did have her then who knows what could be happening to her.

Ezra got up, he had to do something he couldn't just sit and wait. He grabbed his phone and coat and walked to Spencer's house. He knocked on the door and Peter Hastings answered it.

"Hello, can I help you?" He asked

"Yes, I'm Aria's boyfriend, can I please see Spencer?"

"Yes of course, she's in her room with Hanna and Emily. I hope they find Aria soon"

"Thank you" Ezra said and rushed upstairs

He walked up to Spencer's door where he could hear the three girls talking in hushed voices and he slowly knocked on the door.

Spencer opened it, "Ezra" She said

"Hi" He said meekly

"Um, come in"

"Thank you" He replied and Spencer closed the door behind him.

"I think A took Aria" Ezra blurted out

"You know about A?" Emily asked

"Yes, Aria told me after he attacked her"

"What exactly did she tell you?" Spencer asked cautiously

"Everything I think, she didn't seem like she had kept anything from me"

"Ok, well we were thinking the same thing. Toby has it in for Aria after she revealed that he was A and Mona never really liked Aria. They couldn't do anything while she was in the hospital but now she's out it looks like they came after her. Also we got this" Hanna explained and showed Ezra a text from an unknown number on her mobile saying: "Looks like the crazy bitch is finally free. But don't worry, we'll soon fix that. -A"

"Oh my gosh, this has gone too far, we have to tell Aria's parents" He said

"We were thinking about that but everyone who finds out about A is in danger" Spencer replied

"But now Aria's in danger. We can't handle this by ourselves; all of your parents and the police have to know" Ezra said persuading

The three girls looked at each other and nodded.

"Ok" Emily said "We'll tell them"

* * *

Finally the girls had told their families about A. They got all of their parents to go to the Montgomery house where they explained all about A and what they thought had happened with Aria. There was a lot of crying from everyone and lots of hugs when they had finished and then Byron called the police and updated them. They police asked the girls to come to the station so they all went down while the girls gave statements about A, Toby and Mona.

With new leads the police continued their search for Aria and everyone went back to their houses.

Ezra entered his empty apartment and lay down on his bed. Despite the fact it was now the early hours of the morning he couldn't sleep. He was too worried about Aria. He was glad that the girls had told the police the truth but it wasn't much comfort to him. Sure now the police had suspects but they still had no idea where Aria could be.

* * *

The next morning Ezra got a call from Ella saying they had taken Mona into custody. Quickly Ezra drove down to Rosewood police station.

"Hi Ezra, they're interviewing Mona right now" Byron told him

Ezra sat down next to Aria's family and waited. He wished he could be in the interviewing room, he'd get Mona to talk, he'd do anything to make sure that Aria was safe.

Eventually the detectives came out of the interviewing room.

"What happened, do you know where Aria is?" Byron asked

"I'm sorry Sir, unfortunately we couldn't get Mona to tell us anything"

"Well then get back in there and make her talk!" Byron said angrily

"Byron calm down" Ella said

"Ella, she's got our daughter!"

"I'm sorry but she's saying that she doesn't know anything. We've offered her deals since there's enough on her for her to go down for a long time but she just won't talk" One of the detectives said

"Let me in there, I'll make her talk!" Mike yelled clenching his fists

"Mike!" Ella exclaimed "Look let's all calm down!"

"What are you going to do now detectives?" Ezra asked

"Well we're looking into Mona and Toby's backgrounds too see if there's anywhere that they are associated with where they could have taken her. We will interview Mona again but we cannot be sure that she actually took Aria. We know that her and Toby are A but there's no proof that they kidnapped Aria"

"What are you saying? You mean Mona might not actually go down for this?" Ella asked

"Not without substantial evidence"

"Well then get some that is your job isn't it?!" Mike yelled

"That's what we're trying to do Sir" The detective said, "Now please excuse us but we have work to do" They said and walked away

Ella sighed and said "Ok, we'd better get home then, Ezra do you need a lift?"

"No thank you I brought my car" He replied

Ezra got in his car and drove back to his apartment the whole time worrying about Aria.


	17. Chapter 17

Ezra couldn't sleep, concentrate in school, eat, he was too busy worrying about Aria. And he felt so powerless, like he couldn't do anything to help. He had no idea where to look, the police had already checked all of the places they thought Toby or Mona might of taken her and each time the result came back the same; nothing. And the time was ticking away, the longer it took to find her the longer Toby and Mona had to do anything they wanted to her.

As the days passed things started to look worse and worse. The police had no new leads even with the information about A.

Ezra sat with the other girls and Caleb and Paige at lunch at school that day and for a while they all sat in an awkward silence.

"So you haven't heard from A since Aria went missing?" Caleb asked breaking the silence.

"No" Hanna replied, "If we had we would have told the police. Not that it would matter, they still wouldn't find her. The cops won't find Aria until A wants her found"

"Hanna, don't say that!" Emily said "I'm sure they'll find her soon" She continued, looking at Ezra

"Really? When A made Dr Sullivan disappear no one could find her until Toby brought her back"

"She's right" Ezra said grimly "A's holding all the strings and we can't do anything about it"

Everyone went back into silence until Ezra's phone vibrated in his pocket. Ezra looked at it and read the message over and over. It said, "Want your girlfriend back? Come to the park in Philadelphia forest at 11pm. If you tell anyone or come with anyone she dies. –A"

Ezra looked up at the others. He couldn't tell them. He couldn't risk Aria's safety on one text. "I need some air", he said and left, unable to sit with the others after that text.

The rest of the day dragged on slowly. When school was finally over Ezra went straight home and waited. And waited.

After what seemed like ages it was time to go. Ezra grabbed his coat and went down to get into his car. He turned the engine on and drove down the road. As he was driving he had time to think about what he was doing. He knew had had to go, anything that could help Aria he'd do. He just felt very scared, A was dangerous and he knew that he could be walking strait into a trap.

Soon he was in Philadelphia and he drove down to the edge of the forest. Ezra got out of the car and walked down to the park. The forest was quite scary in the dark with the trees creating shadows everywhere. And it was even scarier knowing what was waiting for him in the park.

Finally Ezra got to the park. He looked around; no one was there yet. The swings was rocking eerily in the wind and the roundabout was spinning, the iron creaking cutting through the science.

"Ezra" He heard a familiar voice shriek. Aria. Ezra turned around and saw Aria running towards him.

"Aria!" He yelled and he broke out into a run with a smile plastered across his face. Aria was safe!

"Ezra run!" He heard her shout

"I am, I'm coming Aria!" He replied

"No, run away!" She yelled. Ezra realised that something was wrong. Aria had tears streaming down her face. Ezra froze, not knowing what to do. He was confused and was full of mixed emotions, joy, relief, fear, worry.

"Ezra run" Aria screamed

So he started running. Away from her, away from everything.

Which is when it happened. The shot rung through his ears and he found that he was on the floor. Ezra was suddenly aware of the pain in his arm.

"Ezra" He heard Aria scream

He looked up and saw Toby standing over him pointing a gun at his head.

"Toby" He whispered

"It was stupid of you to come here tonight Ezra" He said

"Please" Ezra pleaded

"Look at you, you're pathetic. You couldn't even take care of your girlfriend" And Ezra looked up to see Aria running towards them

"No Aria, get away!" He yelled with all of the energy he had left.

But Aria ignored him and continued running. Soon she was standing over him.

"Oh Ezra" She cried and dropped to her knees

"Aria" He whispered and entwined his hand in hers.

"Well isn't that sweet, better say your last goodbyes. This is the end for your boyfriend Aria. And you are going to watch him die, slowly and in pain. You will watch the life drain out of him" Toby said cruelly

"Why are you doing this?" Aria said

"Because you deserve to suffer how I have suffered. Then you revealed that I was A and you took my whole life from me. So before I disappear I'm going to make you pay"

"Please don't do this Toby. Please" Aria begged

Ezra looked up at Aria coming up with a plan in his head. He could reach up and grab Toby's leg, tripping him up, then hopefully he'd drop the gun and Aria could grab it. He looked up at Aria willing her to understand. As her eyes met his he pointed to Toby's ankle. He saw the glimmer in her eyes showing that she understood. Aria discretely nodded. Ezra moved his hand into her view and counted down on his fingers three, two, one.

He grabbed Toby's ankle and pulled him down. Toby dropped the gun and Aria was there in a flash and picked it up. She looked down at it and held it up to Toby.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't just shoot you now" Aria said

"Aria" Toby said now on his knees

"Aria don't do this" Ezra said

"You don't understand, I have to do this, do you understand what he did to my friends and I" Aria cried

"No, you don't, Toby's not worth you spending the rest of your life in prison for" Ezra said trying to persuade her

Aria took her eyes of Toby and looked down at Ezra. Her eyes met his and he saw the pain in them. Slowly she nodded. That's when Toby pounced.

He jumped on Aria pushing her to the ground and both of them struggled for the gun. Then the second shot went off.

"Aria" Ezra yelled, unsure at who had been shot

Aria slowly pushed Toby's body off of her.

"Is he dead" She cried

"I think so" Ezra said looking down at the unmoving body with the blood spilling from Toby's chest.

"I... I killed him" Aria whispered

"Aria, look at me it's ok, you didn't mean too"

"Yeah but I killed him"

Soon the park was filled with sirens and police officers and medics rushed towards them. Ezra held Aria's hand as they were surrounded. Then Ezra passed out.

* * *

**Sorry this is very dramatic. Things will get happier eventually don't worry. Anyway thank you for the reviews on the last chapter and I hope you like this one!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Thank you so much for the reviews on the last chapter! I hope you like this one!**

Aria sat by Ezra's side. He was still unconscious. She had stayed with him all night, because even though the doctors said she could go she couldn't leave him. She felt horrible, she hadn't been able to get any sleep and she felt responsible for what had happened. She knew really that it wasn't her fault but she still felt guilty.

Her parents were on their way to the hospital. She couldn't wait to see them, she needed to see them, she needed her Daddy to hold her in his arms and tell her that everything was going to be ok even if it wasn't.

After what seemed like forever her parents arrived. "Oh Aria" Ella cried and rushed to embrace her. They both cried as they held onto one another and Ella held her daughter as if she would never let her go again. Then Aria sat onto her father's lap and cried into his shoulder as he held her.

When the three had composed themselves they all sat down by Ezra's side.

"Oh Aria, we were so worried about you, we thought you were dead or worse!" Sobbed Ella "It's such a relief to see you safe, what... what did Toby do to you"

"It's ok Mom, Toby didn't hurt me, he just locked me in a room, and he seemed to be waiting for someone or for some orders of some kind. I think there must be another A. But I think that that person planned this, Ezra got a text saying to meet Toby at the park if he wanted to help me and I think A had planned for Toby to shoot him all along. But I guess they didn't think that Toby would die. And who knows what they would have done with me after that, I was so scared"

"It's ok Aria, you're safe now" Byron said softly

"I don't know what I'm going to do, Ezra might die, I killed Toby and there's another person out there who wants to hurt my friends and I"

"Aria, it's going to be ok, it's not your fault Toby's dead, it was self defence. The police are looking for anyone who could of accompanied Toby and Ezra's going to be ok, I'm sure of it" Ella said trying to comfort her baby girl

"Thank you, it's so good to see you both again"

"Come on why don't you come home with us, the doctors are going to help Ezra and Mike is at home waiting for us" Said Byron

"No, I want to be here when Ezra wakes up"

"Ok, well then we'll stay with you" Ella said

"Thank you" Aria whispered and held onto her parents hands

Finally Aria got some sleep and the next morning she awoke and looked over to Ezra. He was still unconscious and a doctor was with him.

"How is he?" Aria asked

"He's doing well, it was touch and go for a while, he lost a lot of blood but he's stable now and will hopefully be awake soon" The doctor replied

Aria breathed a sigh of relief, Ezra was going to be ok.

"You should probably go home and get some rest" The doctor said "Don't worry, we'll take care of him"

Aria considered it, she was exhausted from the night's events but she didn't want to leave Ezra. "No, it's ok"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure, I can't leave him, I'm in love with him" Aria said softly

"Ok" The doctor smiled

Aria spent the rest of the day by Ezra's side falling in and out of sleep. Her parents stayed with her and after school Mike came to see her. At around 10pm she fell asleep again but was soon awoken by Ella.

"Aria, I think he's waking up" She said softly

Aria's eyes shot open to see Ezra's hand slowly moving. His eyes began to flutter.

"Ezra?" Aria said

Ezra's eyes slowly opened and he looked up at Aria and smiled

"Aria" He said "Where am I, what happened?"

"You're in hospital Ezra, don't you remember, Toby shot you"

"Oh yes I remember now" He sighed and tried to sit up "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine Ezra, I was so worried about you"

"I'm ok Aria, you don't need to worry about me. How long was I out for?"

"About a day" Aria replied

"Erm... my parents didn't come did they?" He asked hesitantly

"I'm sorry no, the doctors called them but they didn't answer"

"Oh, ok" Ezra said sadly

"I should go and let the doctors know you're awake" Said Ella softly

"Ok, thank you Mrs Montgomery"

"Call me Ella" She smiled and went to see the doctors.

Soon Ella came back with a doctor who checked over Ezra. "How do you feel" He asked

"Like I've been shot" Ezra joked

"Yes, you will probably be in pain for a little while but we've given you some painkillers to take the edge off. The wound seems to be healing nicely and you should be able to go home in a few days"

"Great, thank you" Ezra said

"The police are going to want to interview you so I'll send them in"

"Ok, Aria you should go home, you need to rest too" He said as the doctor left

"Are you sure, I can stay if you want, I don't want to leave you"

"No it's ok, you go" Ezra said trying to persuade her

"Ok" Aria nodded "It will be good for both of us to get some rest"

Byron drove Aria, Ella and Mike home and Aria went straight to bed and fell asleep in seconds. After she was asleep Byron came in and sat next to his daughter, stroking her hair, not wanting to leave his daughter who had only been found a day ago.

Both Ezra and Aria slept deeply, exhausted from what had happened. Aria awoke with her father asleep next to her and tears of relief ran down her face knowing that she was finally safe. Soon Ezra would be home and they'd finally be able to have a normal life together, going to school, going on dates, seeing her friends again.

Aria gently took hold of Byron's hand and held it as if to never let it go.


	19. Chapter 19

The next few days Aria spent her time between her home and the hospital visiting Ezra. He was doing well; the doctor's said that he could come home in a few days. At home Aria's parents were being quite overprotective; they didn't seem to want to let Aria out of their sight since the kidnapping. But they had agreed to let Aria return to school with her friends the next day. Aria was nervous; it was the first time that she would go to school since she was in the psych ward and since Rosewood was such a small town everyone knew everything that had happened.

Soon the next morning came and Aria walked down to Spencer's house to meet her friends. They had decided to all go in together to support Aria. When she got to Spencer's house the three girls smothered Aria with hugs. She had seen them since she got home, they came to her house to see her the day after the shooting, but every time they saw her they clung on to her like it would be the last time they'd see her. Aria realised the impact her disappearance had had on her friends and family, all of them seemed concerned about her and overprotective of her all of the time. She knew she was lucky to have such great people in her life.

"How are you?" Hanna asked

"I'm ok, a bit nervous" Aria replied

"Don't worry, we'll be with you the whole day" Emily said comfortingly

"Thank you" Aria smiled

The four girls grabbed their bags and walked to school. When they got there they walked into the hallway. One girl spotted Aria and nudged her friend and the whispering started. As the majority of the people in the hall started staring at and whispering about Aria she stopped in her tracks.

"Are you ok" Spencer asked gently

Aria looked around at the hallway of people staring at her and picked at the skin on her fingers staring at the floor.

"Maybe this wasn't a good idea, maybe I should go" She whispered

Hanna linked her arm with Aria's and said "No, they have the problem not you, come on" And the four girls walked off down the hall.

Aria's first class was English which all of the girls were in the class with her. They took their seats and the teacher started the lesson. They were learning about the book Of Mice and Men. As a class they were discussing the final chapter.

"So class what do we think of George's decision at the end to shoot Lenny?" The teacher asked

"It was wrong of course, I mean I know Lenny probably would have been killed anyway but you should never kill someone, no matter what" A student said her eyes turning to Aria at the end of her sentence.

Aria looked down to her desk and felt her classmates' eyes on her.

The teacher noticed Aria's discomfort and tried to turn the conversation around, "Well George was saving Lenny from a much worse fate, Lenny would have ended up lynched or in some kind of asylum for killing Curley's wife"

"Maybe Lenny deserved that fate for what he did" Someone said

"But he killed Curley's wife by accident" Spencer replied

"Well anyone who kills someone should be locked up, accident or not. Especially if they're already mental" Noel said looking directly at Aria

The whole class went silent and as she felt the tears enter her eyes Aria got up and ran out of the classroom. She kept running until she got to the bathroom and locked herself in a stall. She closed her eyes and let the tears fall.

"Look at you, you're pathetic, crying in the bathroom when I'm the one who's dead" A cold voice said

Aria opened her eyes and looked up to see Toby standing in front of her.

"Toby" She gasped and jumped up

"They're right you know; you deserve to be locked up" He snarled

"I'm so sorry" She whispered

"Well it's a bit late for that" He laughed coolly and stepped closer to her

Aria stepped back, her back against the wall. "Please don't hurt me" She whispered

But suddenly Toby was holding a gun and pointing it at her.

"No" She yelled "Please Toby!"

He pulled the trigger and she screamed as the heard the bang.

"No, please no. Help me, someone help me!" She screamed

"Aria" She heard someone yell

"No, get away" She screamed "Oh God help me!"

"Aria it's us, it's ok" Spencer cried

"Spencer? Please help me, he shot me" Aria yelled

"Aria, open the door" Emily shouted

"Oh my God there's so much blood. Blood everywhere, all over my hands, dripping down, help me"

"Open the door Aria!" Hanna yelled

But all Aria did was cry. Spencer, Emily and Hanna looked at each other worriedly. "Emily, go get the teacher" Spencer whispered over Aria's sobs.

Emily ran to get the teacher and Spencer kept talking to Aria, unsuccessfully trying to calm her down.

"Get out the way" Hanna said to Spencer and as Spencer moved Hanna started kicking at the door

"No!" Aria screamed "Somebody help me. Please help!"

"Hanna stop" Spencer yelled and then softened her voice "Aria it's just Spencer and Hanna, its ok, no one's going to hurt you"

Aria's screams stopped and slowly Aria opened the door.

"Oh Aria, thank God" Hanna cried and her and Spencer hugged Aria.

"He was there, he shot me" Aria sobbed

"Who?" Spencer asked gently

"Toby"

Spencer and Hanna looked at each other concernedly and Spencer said "Aria, Toby's dead"

"I know because I killed him" Aria cried and slid down to sit on the floor. Spencer and Hanna crouched down beside her and held her hands.

Emily burst in with the English teacher who said "What happened?"

"She says she saw Toby" Hanna said quietly

The teacher looked grave and said "Hanna can you go and get Mrs Montgomery for me and tell her to go to the principal's office?"

"Sure" Hanna said and rushed off to get Ella

"Ok Aria, can you come with me honey?" The teacher said softly

Aria nodded and slowly stood up.

"Emily, can you get someone to cover my class please? Spencer you come with us, I think Aria's going to need a friend with her for a little bit"

Both Emily and Spencer nodded and Emily went off as Spencer, Aria and the teacher went to the principal's office.

Spencer and Aria sat outside the office, Spencer's arm around Aria who was staring into space, as the teacher spoke to Mr Tamborelli.

Soon Hanna and Ella got to the principal's office and Hanna sat down by Aria and Spencer as Ella knocked on the door and went in to join Mr Tamborelli and the English teacher in the office.

"Hi Ella, sit down" Mr Tamborelli said

"Hello sir, what exactly is going on here? Hanna said that you needed to see me about Aria?"

"I'm afraid so, Aria appears to of had a psychotic episode. She said she'd seen Toby" Mr Tamborelli said

"What?" Ella said only partly shocked

"Yes, Miss Green here found her in quite a state"

"She was on the floor crying and I could hear her screams from down the hall." Said Miss Green sadly

"I'm sorry Mrs Montgomery but we think that Aria might need to go back to the hospital" Mr Tamborelli said regretfully

Tears entered Ella's eyes and she said "We only just got her back"

"I'm so sorry Ella" Miss Green said

"Can we just speak to the girls and find out what happened; I'm not sending my daughter anywhere without knowing all of what happened"

"Ok" Mr Tamborelli agreed and went to get Spencer leaving Hanna outside to look after Aria.

Spencer came in and explained to the principal and Aria's mother what had happened. By the end of it Ella was convinced, Aria needed more help than she could give her.

They sent Spencer out, had a quick discussion then brought Aria in. Aria appeared to be doing a lot better, she seemed aware of what was happening and she had calmed down.

She sat down and looked down at her feet. "You're sending me back to the hospital aren't you" She whispered

"I'm so sorry Aria, but after what happened today you need help again and I can't help you like they can" Ella said the tears streaming down her face

"I'm so sorry Mom" Aria said crying

The two embraced and they walked out of the school and got into Ella's car to drive to the hospital.

* * *

**I was really hesitant to upload this because I don't want you to be mad at me. I didn't really want to do this but I thought it was the most realistic thing that would happen after what Aria went through. So I hope it's ok and things do get happier soon I promise! **

**Thank you so much for your lovely reviews, I got 5 on the last chapter which was amazing! **


	20. Chapter 20

**Warning there is a scene of gory nature in this chapter and there may also be a trigger for someone with suicidal thoughts.**

* * *

Ella sat on her own in the living room after settling Aria back into the hospital. She finally allowed herself to cry, it was one of the hardest things she'd ever had to of done as a parent. She held her head in her hands and sighed. It was horrible but she knew she'd done the right thing. All the way to the hospital her baby girl was clearly in a psychotic state. She said that she was scared of the people watching her and every so often she would seem to go into her own world controlled by her hallucinations.

It broke Ella's heart to see her child like that. She felt a lot of anger towards Toby for doing this to Aria. She was doing so well but after what she went through because of him it had made her relapse. Why couldn't her daughter just get a break? It all seemed so unfair.

Ella poured herself a glass of wine and waited for her husband and son to get home.

* * *

Aria sat on her bed listening to the voices commanding her to throw herself out of the window. And she was so tired, tired of fighting them. It had all finally stopped until Toby died. Then it all came crumbling back down.

She looked up to see Toby standing in front of her again.

"Why won't you leave me alone?" She whispered

"I can't do that Aria" He smirked "This is what you deserve, after all you killed me"

"I'm so sorry Toby, I didn't mean too, it was an accident" Aria said the tears entering her eyes

"Well you killed me, whether you meant too or not. And I'm not going to rest until you're dead too. I may not be able to kill you myself but I'm going to torture until you want to kill yourself" He cackled

Aria covered her hands over her ears and tried to block out Toby's menacing voice. But no matter what she did all she could here was Toby.

"Please leave me alone" She cried

"There's only one way out Aria" Toby said and held his gun up to his head and shot himself. As she saw the contents of his head pour out Aria screamed and the hospital staff rushed in to help her calm down.

* * *

That afternoon Ezra was let out of the hospital. His arm was in a sling but it felt a lot better.

As he walked back to his apartment he ran into Spencer.

"Ezra!" She exclaimed "How are you?"

"I'm a lot better thanks" He replied "How are you?"

"I'm ok though today was pretty tough. It was hard to see Aria like that"

"Why, what happened with Aria?" Ezra asked

"Haven't you heard, she had a breakdown in school today, she said that she was seeing Toby. Her mom had to take her back to the hospital" Spencer said sadly

"What! That's awful, poor Aria"

"I know, it was horrible"

"I'm sorry but I have to go and see her" Ezra said

"That's ok, see you at school"

"Yeah bye" Ezra said and hurried to the hospital. When he arrived visiting time was already in session but he had enough time to see Aria.

Ella and Byron were sitting with her and as he crossed over to them Ella spotted him and got up to walk towards him.

"Hi Ezra" She said quietly

"Hi Ella, can I see Aria?" Ezra asked

"I'm sorry Ezra but I don't think that that's a good idea. I don't want you to see her like this and I don't she would either"

"Please Ella, I've seen her have a breakdown before and I would never judge her or think any different of her"

"I know Ezra but she's in a bad way, worse than she's been for a long time, worse than you've seen before. I just don't think it's a good idea"

Ezra wasn't sure what to do, he desperately wanted to see Aria but he also wanted to respect her parents' wishes. He looked over to Aria and saw her staring into space as her father tried to engage her; she hadn't noticed that Ezra was there. She looked tired and her eyes were red. Eventually Ezra decided just to let her rest that day and he wouldn't bother her but he'd come back tomorrow.

"Ok" He agreed "I'll come back tomorrow"

"Thank you Ezra" Ella said smiling sadly

"And if there's anything I can do for you let me know, I'd like to help"

"That's very kind of you, thank you"

"Bye" He said and walked out of the hospital back home to his apartment.

Ezra got home and tried to take his mind off Aria. Even though he'd only seen her from a distance he could tell how unwell she was. He felt angry at the A team, he'd only just got Aria back from being kidnapped and because of how they traumatized her he'd lost her again.

He tried to read to distract himself but the only books he could find were love stories and it just kept going back to how much he loved Aria. Ezra ended up throwing the book that he was reading across the room and tried to hold back his tears but they came all the same. It wasn't like him to cry, he rarely shed a tear yet Aria was his weak spot.

"I love you Aria" he whispered

* * *

Ella got home from the hospital and checked that Mike was ok before collapsing on her bed. She let the tears flood out, she'd seen her child in a bad way before but never like this. It was like at times she wasn't even there, like she was in another world.

She got a call from the hospital letting her know that Aria had been restrained in a psychotic break and she felt physically sick. She couldn't believe she'd handed her daughter over to a bunch of strangers to be restrained and sedated and locked in safe rooms. At that thought she could not hold in the bile that was rising up her throat so she ran into the bathroom and threw up down the toilet then fell to the floor in tears.

Downstairs Byron poured himself a glass of beer and listened to his wife sobbing trying to hold back his own tears.

* * *

Mike was in his room hearing his Mom crying and grabbed his coat and climbed down his window. He went to find his new mates, whose hobbies were doing weed, thieving and setting fire to things. He knew that it wasn't like him and that it was wrong but Mike needed an escape somehow. The broke into someone's house and as he looked for valuables he walked into a teenage girls room who must be about Aria's age and he saw posters of Imagine Dragons, Lydia, Paper Route and Mumford and Sons on the walls. They were all of Aria's favourite bands. Unable to contain the rage that boiled inside him Mike ripped the posters off of the walls and trashed the girl's room, tearing the pages out of books and smashing glass models.

Then Mike ran out of the house and ran away as far as he could from everyone and everything.

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**I just read this chapter back and realized how depressing it is. I hope you all still like it! Thank you so much for the reviews on the last chapter, your support means the world to me**


	21. Chapter 21

Aria couldn't take it anymore. Toby was torturing her and there was nothing she could do to stop it or block him out. She knew there was only one way out of it all.

In art that afternoon she snuck a pair of scissors out of the room and took them back to her room. She sat crying, she didn't want to do it but it was the only way to make the hallucinations stop. "I'm sorry" she whispered, she didn't know who too, to Toby for shooting him, to her family, friends and Ezra for leaving them, to herself for what she was about to do. She took a deep breath in and closed her eyes.

* * *

Ella poured herself a glass of wine and sat on the couch drinking it. She heard the phone ring and winced at the thought that it could be the hospital calling to tell her that Aria had been restrained again. She picked up the phone and sure enough it was the hospital. She froze as the words echoed around her head of what they were saying and then as it hit her, she dropped her wine glass creating a red stain on the white carpet.

* * *

Aria opened her eyes. As she looked around the white room she realised that she was still alive. She had failed and she was sure that Toby would soon be there to remind her. She looked over and saw her parents and Mike sitting opposite her hospital bed.

"Aria" Ella said as she saw that she was awake

"Hi Mom" She whispered not knowing what to say. What could she say after what she'd done?

"Oh Aria, thank God you're ok" Ella said as the tears started to run down her face

"Why did you do that Aria" Byron said softly

"I'm so sorry; there was no other way to make it stop"

"Make what stop?" Ella asked

"Toby" She said sadly

"You mean you are still seeing Toby" Ella asked

Aria nodded. Ella walked over to the bed and embraced Aria. "It's ok" She whispered stroking Aria's chocolate coloured hair as Aria rested her head on Ella's shoulder.

"Does Ezra know?" Aria whispered

Ella pulled away and said "No, do you want me to call him?"

Aria nodded and Ella squeezed her hand and then went to call Ezra.

Ezra lay in his bed staring at the ceiling. It was only 9pm but he felt exhausted. He had gone to see Aria but the staff had told him that he couldn't see her. They refused to tell him why so after arguing with them he'd gone home. He'd tried to ring Ella but she wasn't answering. He was snapped out of his thoughts as he heard his phone ringing and went over to answer it.

"Hello"

"Ezra? It's Ella"

"Hi Ella" He said "I tried to call you earlier, I went to see Aria today but they wouldn't let me see her. Is she ok"

"No. Well yes but not really"

"Why, what happened" He asked concernedly

"Aria... Aria attempted suicide this afternoon" Ella said her voice crocking with tears

"What! No, oh my God"

"It's ok Ezra, she's ok, the cuts weren't deep even though she lost quite a bit of blood but she's conscious now and she's going to be fine"

"Thank goodness. Can I see her?" Ezra asked

"Yes, you can come tomorrow, she's sleeping now"

"Ok thank you Ella" Ezra said

"That's ok Ezra, bye" Ella said and hung up

Ezra walked over to his bed and lay down. He didn't know what to do with himself; he was in shock that Aria had done that. He knew things were bad but he didn't think they were that bad.

* * *

Aria woke up and saw her Mom sitting next to her.

"Hey sweetheart, your Dad took Mike home last night but they should be back soon"

"Ok did you call Ezra?" She asked

"Yes, he's coming to see you today if that's ok"

"Yeah, that's ok." Aria said and then continued "Mom what happens now?"

"Well we'll wait until the doctors are happy to discharge you and then I guess you'll have to go back to the psych ward."

"Please don't make me go back there Mom, please"

"I'm sorry Aria but I have no choice, you need help"

"Please Mom, can I just come home, I'll go to see a psychiatrist as an outpatient and I'll try really hard. The hospital makes me feel trapped and all they do is look you up on your own or restrain you which just makes things worse."

"I know, I'm sorry sweetheart but even if I thought it was a good idea for you to come home it's not fair on Mike" Ella said regretfully

"She can come and stay with me" Ezra said standing in the doorway

Ella and Aria looked up as Ezra walked towards them.

"Really?" Aria asked

"Yes, of course. I'll take good care of her Ella. When she was in the hospital Aria attempted suicide and I can't have that happen again. If she lives with me I can watch her and make sure she takes her meds and goes to appointments with her psychiatrist and take care of her. Please Ella"

"No Ezra, it's not fair on you to take on that kind of responsibility"

"I honestly don't mind, I want to do it"

"Please Mom, I can't go back to the hospital I really can't" Aria said

Ella closed her eyes and sighed. As she reopened her eyes she said "Ok. We'll give it a try as long as if it gets too hard Ezra you let us know. I'm not completely happy with this idea but I don't trust the hospital anymore and maybe it will be good for Aria to be with you. I'll just call Byron and check with him"

Ella left and room and Ezra sat next to Aria and held her hand. "Thank you, I love you so much" Aria whispered

"I love you too" Ezra said

Soon Ella was back. "So?" Asked Aria

"Your Dad said it was ok, just no funny business you two ok"

"Mom" Aria said embarrassed

Ezra laugh and both Ezra and Aria agreed to Ella and Byron's rules and smiled at each other. Finally Aria felt a bit safer and Ezra felt like he could look after her and make sure she was safe. Ezra and Aria would finally be together again.

"Thank you Mom" Aria smiled feeling a bit of hope for the first time since she was kidnapped.

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**Thank you so much for the reviews on the last chapter! I really hope you like this one**


	22. Chapter 22

Soon Aria was let out of the hospital. She packed her stuff from the psych ward and her family helped her to move into Ezra's apartment. She didn't need to take a lot of stuff; all she took was clothes, a few books that Ezra didn't have, her laptop and phone, her journal and her camera.

Soon she was settled in and her parents and Mike stayed in the now cramped apartment for a takeaway pizza then they went home and Ezra and Aria prepared for their first night in the apartment together.

They watched a movie and then got ready for bed. Ezra prepared the couch for him to sleep on, he planned of swapping his double bed with two single beds soon but for now he'd have to make do on the couch. Ezra and Aria got into bed and soon fell asleep.

Ezra was awakened by Aria screaming. He quickly jumped out of the couch and ran over to Aria.

"Hey, it's ok" He said comfortingly and he held her hand

Soon Aria's screams turned into cries and as she calmed down Ezra embraced her in his arms.

"What happened?" He asked

"Toby was there again" Aria whispered "I'm sorry"

"Don't be sorry, this is why you're here, I'm going to take care of you now"

"Thank you, I love you"

"I love you too, are you ok now?"

"I think so. But will you stay with me anyway? It's a double bed why don't you sleep here with me" Aria asked

"I don't know..." Ezra said unsure

"Please Ezra. I need you"

"Ok" Ezra nodded "Move over then"

Aria moved to the other side of the bed and Ezra got in next to her, holding onto her hand. With Ezra beside her Aria felt safer and she soon fell asleep. Ezra lay there staring at Aria sleeping, feeling her heat next to him. He stroked back a loose strand of her hair and smiled at how peaceful she looked. He knew he'd made the right decision letting her stay with him. He loved Aria more than anything, she was all he had and he couldn't lose her again.

* * *

They awoke to Ezra's alarm the next day. They had decided to both go back to school to see if they could make it work for Aria but if not they'd drop out for the rest of year and re-take grade 11 the next year. They had had a meeting with Mr Tamborelli and he had allowed Aria to come back and spoke to the teacher to make sure that she could get any support she needed.

Ezra and Aria got ready for school and though the voices were bothering Aria they weren't bad enough to make her break down.

Soon it was time to go back to school and sure enough, as they got there, the other students stared at them. But they had each other to support one another. They went to find Spencer, Emily and Hanna who were all stood by Aria's locker to welcome her back.

As they saw Aria Hanna threw herself into Aria's arms.

"It's so good to see you Aria" Emily said as it was the first time they had seen Aria since she went back into hospital.

"It's good to see you too, I've really missed you guys" Aria replied

"We've missed you too Aria" Spencer said

The morning went ok and it was nice for Aria to catch up with her friends again but by lunch time the hallucinations were worse and Aria felt things spiraling out of control. She went to find Ezra who was sitting with Caleb.

"I need to go home" She whispered the tears entering her eyes

"What happened?" Ezra asked

"I'm losing control, please I need to go"

"Ok I'll just let Mr Tamborelli know and then we'll get out of here"

"Thank you" Aria said sadly and took Ezra's hand

Aria sat outside the office as Ezra was talking to the principal when Noel and Jenna came over to her.

"Hey psycho, had another breakdown yet?" Noel smirked

"Go away" Aria whispered

Noel and Jenna laughed in response then Noel suddenly stopped

"Oh my God, snake, there's a snake on your shoulder" He said to Aria

"What, where?" A panicked Aria replied and started brushing at her shoulders. The snake fell into her lap and Aria screamed.

"Help me" She cried and Noel and Jenna started laughing

"There's nothing there schizo" Jenna sniggered

Aria looked back down into her lap and there was nothing there. By this time everyone was staring at them and Mr Tamborelli and Ezra came out of the office.

"What's going on here?" The principal asked

Noel and Jenna exchanged a smirk and the principal continued "Noel, Jenna, my office now"

"Come on lets go home" Ezra said and put his arm around Aria who was still shaking

* * *

When Ezra and Aria got back to the apartment Ezra ran Aria a bath to calm her down and Aria watched the tv. When the bath was ready Aria went into the bathroom as Ezra took her place in front of the tv, locked the door and striped off her clothes.

She stepped into the warm water and lay down letting the water slide over her body. She closed her eyes and went under, holding her breath as she slid down. When she needed to take a breath she rose back up and gasped for air. She opened her eye and saw Toby standing next to the bath dripping with blood which was running into the water.

As the water turned red Aria gasped and splashed around trying to get out. But the blood was sticky and suddenly she couldn't move. Aria screamed as the water started to rise drowning her in the sticky red liquid.

Ezra heard Aria's screams and rushed to the bathroom and yelled "Aria are you ok?"

"Ezra? Help me I'm going to drown"

"I'm coming Aria" Ezra replied and started kicking at the bathroom door in an attempt to get in. As he failed he braced himself and slammed his whole body against the door, the force of which breaking down the door. Ezra ran in and pulled Aria's naked, vulnerable body out of the clear water.

As Aria cried Ezra took her wet body into his arms and comforted her.

"It's ok, I'm here, it's ok"

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**Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter, I hope you like this one!**


	23. Chapter 23

**Thank you so much for the reviews on the last chapter, I hope you like this one!**

* * *

The next morning Aria awoke before her alarm clock and looked over at Ezra who was lying awake.

"You're awake" She softly stated

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep last night"

"Sorry, did I keep you up? I had nightmares all night"

"I know, I saw you tossing and turning. But it wasn't your fault, I was just thinking" Ezra said gently

"Thank you Ezra" Aria said suddenly

"What for?" He asked

"For last night, for taking care of me. I don't know how I could have got through it if it wasn't for you. I was so scared"

"That's ok, I'll always be here to take care of you, you don't have to be scared when I'm here"

Aria smiled at Ezra who returned her smile.

Soon the alarm started playing so Ezra and Aria got out of bed.

"Are you ok to go to school today?" Ezra asked

"Yes, just don't leave me when you don't have to" Aria mumbled

"Don't worry, I won't"

The two had breakfast and got ready for school.

Mike woke up with his puke over himself in a bedsit somewhere he didn't know. He got up and saw the bodies of his sleeping friends around him and he left the building. He decided to bunk off school so he went down to the road where all of the rich people in Rosewood lived and broke into house number one. The car wasn't in the drive and the house was empty.

Mike walked over to the fridge and poured himself a glass of orange juice and sat down on the couch. It was a new thing he did, when he broke into the houses, before stealing anything he wanted he pretended just for a bit that he lived in that house and was part of that family. It gave him a bit of comfort, pretending to be someone else, in a different family, in a different world where everything was perfect. He knew that no one's life was really perfect but it was nice to pretend.

He looked over to the picture on the fireplace of the family who presumably lived in that house. There was a Dad, a Mom and three daughters. One of them was about Mike's age and the other two were younger.

Mike got up, he'd had enough of pretending, it was time to get serious and look for anything in the perfect family's home that was of any value to him. He walked into the first girl's bedroom and then froze in horror as he heard a car pull into the drive. He ran out of the room and down the stairs, heading for the back door but he was too slow. The father of the family walked into the house and saw Mike standing there like a deer in the headlights.

"What the hell do you think you're doing" The man yelled

Ella sat watching the tv. Byron was at work and she though Aria and Mike were at school. She had ironing to do but she couldn't bring herself to do anything productive these days. She was really worried about Aria, she wished that she could be home with the family but she knew that she couldn't.

Ella's thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell ringing. She went over to open it and too her shock saw Mike standing there with a police officer.

"Mike, what have you done?" Ella gasped

"Mike was caught breaking into someone's house. He's been given a warning; if he gets caught again he could go to prison." The police officer said

"I'm sorry officer, come inside Mike, and thank you for bringing him home" Ella said

"You're welcome, keep an eye on him, I don't want to see him in the station again" The officer said as Mike walked into the house and then the officer left and Ella closed the door behind him.

"What were you thinking Mike?" Ella yelled

"It's not a big deal Mom, I didn't take anything"

"It is a big deal. Go to your room, we'll talk about this when your father gets home, I can't believe you broke into people's houses again"

As Mike walked up the stairs Ella collapsed in the couch in tears.

Ezra and Aria's day went pretty well, there were a few rocky moments but Ezra was there to support Aria and helped her to get through it.

After school Ezra drove Aria to Dr Sullivan's office who Aria had agreed to see again. Ezra sat in his car and waited outside, not wanting to leave in case Aria needed him.

After seeing Dr Sullivan who prescribed Aria a new med, Ezra and Aria went back to Ezra's apartment. They watched tv but just as Aria was starting to relax she got a text. She opened it and read "Hey bitch, guess who's back and better than ever. You may have gotten Toby and Mona out of the way but I'm still here and I'm ready for the games to begin. –A"

"No" Aria whispered and Ezra looked over and read the text.

Ezra looked at the now shaking Aria and said "It's ok, I won't let this person hurt you, we'll find them"


	24. Chapter 24

**I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I last updated, I've been pretty busy! But I really hope you like this chapter, thank you so much for all of your lovely reviews, they mean so much too me. Just to let you know next chapter is going to be the last one. I will have it up in a few days. Thank you again for all of your support!**

* * *

Ezra was determined to find out who A was. It was just the how that was the difficulty. He had been working on Aria's phone with Caleb to see if there was any way they could trace where or who the texts were sent from. However all they could find was that they were all sent from burner cells.

He gave Aria her phone back and internally sighed. Ezra knew he was the one who had to protect Aria and he couldn't find any way to do that. He couldn't even come up with a plan to expose A and every day he watched Aria becoming more scared and more tired of fighting everything she had to deal with.

It was a Saturday so Aria decided to go and visit her family. She unlocked the front door and stepped inside.

"Mom, Dad?" She called

"We're in the living room love" Ella answered

Aria walked into the room and saw Mike sitting on the couch with Byron and Ella standing above him looking very stern.

"What's going on?" Aria asked slowly

Ella sighed and said "Mike's been caught breaking into people's houses again"

"What!" Aria exclaimed "Mike, why?"

"Because I was tired of feeling out of control to everything that happens in my life. When I'm with my mates and we're setting fire to something or breaking into people's houses or shoplifting I'm in control. And I guess it's just got to go into other people's houses and pretend to be someone else"

"Oh Mike, I'm so sorry for everything I've put you through" Aria said sadly

"It's not your fault Aria, it's mine. I'm sorry the last thing you need is me going off the rails. I just needed an escape"

"I don't want you hanging out with these people anymore Mike" Byron said gently

"Ok, I'm sorry guys. I won't do it again" Mike said softly

"And do you want to see that therapist again? It might help" Said Ella

"Yeah ok. It might be a good idea I guess"

"Ok, I'll make you an appointment" Ella smiled

Aria gave Mike a hug and the family settled down to watch a movie together.

When the film was just finishing Aria got a text and so did Spencer, Hanna and Emily in their houses. "Hey bitches, want to keep your friends and family safe again? Come to Emily's families' cabin or the people you love get hurt. See you soon bitches –A"

Aria looked up from her phone scared. She knew that there was probably a trap waiting for her and her friends but she couldn't have her family and Ezra be in danger.

She left her house and drove up to Emily's cabin. When she got there she saw her friends' cars outside and she ran in to see her friends standing in the main room.

"Hey guys" Aria said softly

"Hi Aria, you got the text too?" Emily asked

"Yeah. Is there anyone else here?" Aria asked

"No, we checked all of the rooms"

"I wonder what A is going to do with us" Aria said hesitantly

"Do you guys smell that?" Spencer said suddenly

Emily, Hanna and Aria sniffed the air and the four girls looked at each other in horror. They could smell smoke and burning. They ran to the kitchen where the smell was coming from and they saw the whole room alight. And it was spreading fast.

"Quick, we have to get out of here!" Spencer yelled

The four girls ran to the front door but it wouldn't open. The back door was through the back of the burning kitchen. They were trapped.

"What are you going to do" Cried Hanna

"Check the windows!" Aria said but all the windows were locked and the shutters were closed so they couldn't break through the glass.

Soon the smoke started to fill the girls' lungs and the fire started to spread to the room they were in. The four girls held each other's hands and Aria closed her eyes. She felt someone pick her up and lift her out of the room but she was too weak to open her eyes.

Then she could smell grass. Aria slowly opened her eyes and looked around to see the four girls laying on the grass outside the burning cabin.

She looked up and saw Alison standing above her.

"Ali?" She said softly

"Hi Aria" Ali replied

"You're alive!"

"Yes. I'm as alive as you are"

"What happened, what's going on, why did you pretend to be dead?"

"Sweet Aria, so many questions. But don't worry I have time to answer them all now. Let's just wait for the others to wake up" Ali said

Soon the other girls were awake and Ali started her explaining.

"You never knew this but I have a twin sister called Courtney. Not many people know about her because when I was seven she tried to kill me. She was and still is a sociopath. My parents sent her to a secure psychiatric facility but on the night when I disappeared she escaped. She came after me and tried to kill me but Melissa saved me. I swore Melissa to secrecy and I disappeared knowing if she knew I was alive Courtney would try to kill me again. Courtney also disappeared and she became red coat and her life became about torturing you four. She lured you here tonight with the plan to finally kill you all. But of course I came to save you, I've been looking out for you as long as she has been A."

For a moment the girls were silent then Hanna said "Where's Courtney now?"

"Dead. She wanted to watch you burn so she took a risk to stay by the house. When I went to save you I knocked her out and carried her into the house. There's no way she could of survived" Ali said slowly

The five girls sat in silence until the fire engines gathered around them.


	25. Chapter 25

**I'm so sorry that it's been so long since I updated this! I don't know what too say really, I just hope anyone still following this story enjoys this chapter! I know it's short but it was just tying u the ends really. But I have a new Ezria story in progress so keep your eyes out for that. Thank you so much for all of the support I've had during this story, I really appreciate it!**

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The five girls sat in the hospital as they waited for their families to arrive. They were all fine, none of the girls had any serious burns and the smoke inhalation hadn't damaged their lungs.

The first ones who arrived at the hospital were Ali's parents.

"Alison!" Her mother cried and Ali's parents hugged her like they were scared if they let go that she would disappear again.

"Courtney's dead" Ali said softly

"We know, I'm so sorry love" Her Dad said

"Come on let's get you home"

"Ok, bye girls" Ali said to the others

"Bye Ali" The four girls replied

The next people to arrive were Aria's parents shortly followed by Ezra.

"Aria!" He exclaimed and came running towards her

Aria stood up and smiled as Ezra embraced her

"You're ok, you're ok" He said gently as if he was convincing himself

"Yeah I'm ok Ezra" She replied

"I love you so much"

"I love you too. Come on lets go home"

Ezra and Aria got back to Ezra's apartment and Aria went over and sat on the bed. Ezra followed and sat next to her.

"Every time I leave you bad things seem to happen" Aria said

"The universe must be telling us something" Ezra laughed and leaned in and kissed Aria passionately.

As the kiss deepened Aria ran her hand under Ezra's shirt and up his chest. Slowly she started to undo the shirt buttons.

Ezra interrupted her by pulling away "Aria, are you sure you're ready for this?"

Aria nodded and said "Yes I'm ready"

"And you're sure you want to do this?"

"I've never wanted anything more"

Ezra slowly took her shirt off as Aria undid his jeans.

The pair lay down on the bed and kissed passionately.

Pretty soon things got back to normal. Alison and her parents and Jason decided to move away for a fresh start and although the girls were sad to lose Ali again they were also a little relieved and they were happy to know that she was safe.

The police found Courtney's remains in the burnt down cabin and the girls were relieved to know that A was gone

They never heard from A again and the five girls were finally able to live their lives without fear.

Mike found a new crowd and with things settled down he got a lot happier and more secure. The therapy helped him a lot and soon he was back to being a carefree teenager. As a result of this and knowing that Aria was finally safe Byron and Ella were a lot happier and their marriage was stronger.

Aria was doing well, with A gone she felt a lot safer and less stress and slowly the hallucinations and delusions faded. Although she was likely to have relapses in the future they knew what to do to help her now. However she stayed living with Ezra but now because she needed too, but because she wanted too.

Ezra and Aria were happy together and their relationship grew stronger every day. They made plans to go to college together and were happy in their lives. There was little drama and they were finally able to live as normal teenagers.

The End


End file.
